Al from Dadeville called The Paul Finebaum Show on Jan. 27, 2011 and made his confession.:
"The weekend after the Iron Bowl, I went to Auburn, Ala., because I lived 30 miles away, and I poisoned the two Toomer's trees. I put Spike 80DF in 'em.
Paul: Did they die?
Al: Do what?
Paul: Did ? they ? die?
Al: They're not dead yet, but they definitely will die.
Paul: Is it against the law to poison a tree?
Al: Do you think I care?
Paul: No.
Al: I really don't! And you can tell Tammy, I hope ? never mind. Roll Damn Tide!"
And with that, Updyke began his bizarre, winding legal ordeal. In Auburn, horticulturists were working to save the oaks that for decades were a part of the War Eagle tradition.
It has been five years since the poisoning, after Auburn upset Alabama 28-27.
Updyke had been at the game but he and a friend decided not to stay in the hotel room they rented in Tuscaloosa, Updyke told ABC News earlier this year.
"We just drove straight back to Dadeville," Updyke said in that interview, "seriously, I bet we didn't say 10 words."
Five years after Updyke poisoned the oaks, the ramifications are still felt by him and the Auburn family.
In July, the university planted a new, 35-foot live oak after one of the two planted earlier in the year failed to thrive.
"The original tree that we planted on Valentine's Day just never showed signs, never leafed out this spring," Ben Burmester, campus planner with Auburn University Facilities, said in July.
"We've monitored it for months then finally made the call that it need to be replaced. Since we made that call, we continued to monitor it, water it, and it just continued to decline so we made the decision we wouldn't transplant it to another location."
While Auburn University officials originally said rolling of the oaks would return in fall 2016, it's unknown whether the replacement will cause that date to be pushed back.
"We are going to continue to monitor it," said Burmester. "We're just going to have to see how this tree takes."
Updyke, three years after pleading guilty to a felony charge of damaging animal or crop facilities, continues to make news and struggles to pay fines.
As part of the plea deal, Updyke was ordered to pay more than $800,000 in restitution to Auburn, court costs and legal fees. He was ordered to make $500 payments each month despite asking to have that amount lessened to $50 because of financial hardship.
In January, he narrowly avoided going to jail by paying $350 in back owed restitution.
"An April 2015 hearing found Updyke has made quarterly restitution payments of at least $350 totaling $1,600 in restitution, in addition to performing mechanical and janitorial work as community service for the police department in Albany, La, where he earns about $25 for every eight hours worked. That money goes toward court costs but not restitution," The Opelika-Auburn News reported this week.
After Ole Miss beat Alabama in September, an Oxford police officer tweeted a picture of Updyke from the department's official account and asked people to call the department if they saw him in town.