Before Tiger King, before even tigers at all, Joe Exotic was a teenage police chief... in a town with no running water.
Back in 1982, a 19-year-old Joe was going by the surname Schreibvogel and had graduated from Pilot Point High School.
He decided upon a career in law enforcement and was quickly named the police chief of Eastvale, a town of just 700 people and with unreliable running water, reports Dallas Morning News.
The Denton County town was situated near Lewisville Lake and in 1984 it was declared effectively bankrupt so that federal aid could be accessed.
At the time, Joe wrote a letter explaining the difficulties his police force were facing.
He pointed out: "Items that are attached to vehicles keep falling off, and they have either been replaced or repaired.
"And we are unable to tell if we have an intoxicated driver because citizens have to drive on the wrong side of the road half the time so they can miss the large holes."
A year later, an almost fatal incident meant that Joe decided to have a career change.
Joe claims he was involved in a drug investigation when his car was forced off his bridge, leaving him critically injured.
He suffered broken bones in his back, arms, leg, ribs, shoulder and nose and was hospitalised for six months.
For the following five years after that, Joe had to wear leg and body braces until his rehabilitation was complete. At the same time he moved to Florida.
Joe told The Dallas Morning News in 1997: "I nearly died for $1,600 a month and trying to be fair. That’s why I stick up for the underdog.
"I have no desire to be a police officer again. I pity the honest ones, and I’m afraid of the dishonest ones."
With much of what has happened in Joe's life, there is some doubt whether the story happened at all, with New York Magazine reporting that residents of the town do not remember it happening and Joe also saying in later years that the crash was an attempt to take his own life.
After returning to Texas from Florida, Joe began working at Pet Safari in Arlington and by the beginning of the 90s, he had bought the store.
In 1993, his pet store was hit by two break-ins in which a number of snakes were taken.
A red-tailed boa constrictor and six pythons were stolen and it led to Joe sleeping at the store with a gun, just in case the robbers decided to come back again.
After years with snakes, Joe then discovered a love for big cats and this was a life changer in more ways than one.
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