STANFORD, Ky., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Authorities in Kentucky said they arrested a man accused of drunkenly trying to dig up his father's grave to help the nearly-40-year-dead man get to heaven.

Michael May, 44, whose father, Odell, died in 1978, was arrested Monday night on charges of violating a grave, possession of marijuana, and public intoxication.


May, who had allegedly been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana Monday evening, was discovered digging up a plot at the Pilot Baptist Church in rural Lincoln County by a constable whose suspicions were piqued when he saw May's car.

"I went back and hollered for him to step back in the light and he told me to step back to the dark. That's when I went and got my flashlight. He started hollering out [Bible] verses at me," Constable Delbert Mitchell told WLEX-TV. "He told me he was trying to dig his dad up, so his dad could go to heaven."

May told police he does not believe he was doing anything wrong by trying to dig up his father's grave.

"I see the truth.. he needs to be on the ground. Not under it," May said.

Police asked May if he planned to make a second attempt to exhume his father's remains.

"It's a possibility. If the truth doesn't come out and nobody sees the truth, yeah I'll do it again," he said.

May is due in court Monday.