Teen Allegedly Spikes Stepfather's Drink With Cow Tranquilizers, Thought It Would Be ‘Funny’

A teenager claims he was just joking around after allegedly stealing cow tranquilizers from his family's barn and injecting them in his stepfather's energy drink.

16-year-old Tyler Rabenhorst-Malone of Lima, Wisconsin was charged with placing foreign objects in edibles and second-degree recklessly endangering safety for allegedly spiking his stepdad's drinks with sedatives that are traditionally used for cows when they give birth.

The combination of oxytocin and rompun caused slurred speech and heavy breathing in the stepfather, who remains unnamed in reports. The man had visited a hospital in January 2018 with those symptoms and was told by doctors was caused by a combination of consuming energy drinks, stress and a lack of sleep. He returned to a hospital in April with the same symptoms and began monitoring his food and drink intake.

At the same time, Rabenhorst-Malone's family noted that a box of tranquilizers was missing from their barn. Then, suspecting Tyler was up to something, the parents discovered syringes used to put the chemicals into the energy drinks. A sample of the drinks later tested positive for the missing chemicals.

The parents of Tyler Rabenhorst-Malone noticed that cow tranquilizers were stolen from their barn around the same time the teen's stepfather began exhibiting strange symptoms. Photo: Rock County Sheriff's Office

Rabenhorst-Malone allegedly admitted to police on Feb. 7 that he was responsible. Tyler said he never meant to cause harm and simply thought it would be "funny," according to KTRK-TV of Houston, Texas.

The teen's mother said her child had previously gotten in trouble “for hacking school emails," according to the New York Daily News.

Rabenhorst-Malone is scheduled to appear in court on March 18.

[Photo: Rock County Sheriff's Office]