Last year there was a leak in my building, and being on the first floor, it resulted in a good amount of water damage in my apartment. Luckily (I guess, for cleaning purposes at least) it was my bathroom that got hit, mostly (but not exclusively!) over the shower/bathtub. Still, the water disintegrated a sizable chunk of my ceiling, and because the super and management office in my building are obnoxiously hard to spur into action, the open ceiling situation lasted for months. But there’s always a slithery silver lining, and I have to thank one Derry, New Hampshire apartment dweller for highlighting mine: the fact that I didn’t encounter a five-foot long ball python snake lounging in my bathroom. On Monday, local NH police posted a pic of the python on Facebook (and flexed their creative caption writing muscles), and the citizens of Derry, NH rose to the occasion in the comments:
A New Hampshire resident called the police after finding an unexpected and unwelcome guest slithering around their apartment bathroom.
On Monday, July 28, the Derry, N.H. Police Department took to Facebook to alert the public that a 5-ft. Python had been discovered in the bathroom of someone’s apartment on East Broadway.
Authorities shared a photo of the snake, which was reclining over the toilet and stretched out into the nearby bathtub.
“Sssssssssssome one missssssssing sssssssomething?” they cheekily captioned the post alongside a snake emoji. It was later updated to read: “Owner has been located.”
Followers took to the comments section to reply to the comical post.
“That’s my ex! who let him out?” one woman wrote, prompting another to jokingly reply, “We must’ve dated the same guy.”
“A whole new meaning to ‘snake the toilet,’” someone else joked.
Others had more practical comments and concerns, including one Facebook user who asked, “If that isn’t where the snake lives…how did it get in?!?!”
They continued, adding, “Please don’t tell me it came up through the toilet or shower drain.”
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Derry Police Captain Vern Thomas described the snake as “docile.” He confirmed that it wound up belonging to one of the resident’s neighbors and that it had been safely reunited.
As for how the snake embarked on its adventure, police were unable to provide an answer as to how it escaped its habitat.
According to Healthline, a pet ball python, a common breed to keep as a pet, is capable of biting if provoked. However, they are nonvenomous so a bite is not lethal.
However, anyone who was bitten might still need to seek medical attention to avoid a possible infection.
I know people who live in apartments have pets. I am one of them! (A dog, My Guy.) I know people have pet snakes. But somehow the fact that this was a five-foot-long pet snake is doing me in. No wonder it slunk outta there, it needed room to stretch! Hence the snapshot police got of it “reclining” across the toilet and tub. My point is, I think the python and its person are gonna need a bigger boat apartment. And of course, like that legitimately frightened commenter mentioned, exactly how did the snake exit one unit and enter another? Without keys, no less! Eesh. If I came home and found a snake, I don’t think I’d be scared on my behalf, as much as I would be freaking out over my pup. My Guy is nine pounds of 1,000 kilowatt energy, who has a penchant for standing on his hind legs and pawing at the air with his front legs as he growls at other dogs. Or large inanimate objects (we passed a mattress on the sidewalk the other day and he really gave it the what for). My point is, his spunk is sharper than his sense of scale and threat, so I truly shudder to think about the consequences of him coming upon a snake in our home. Thank goodness our bathroom ceiling was fixed.
PS — Thank you, People Mag, for confirming that ball pythons are nonvenomous, but that any bites should still be examined by a medical professional. I’ll also add as a reminder that if you get bitten, you don’t need to bring the snake with you to the doctor, in fact they’d prefer that you don’t.
Photos credit: Giulia Botan/Pexels, Crissta Ames-Walle/Unsplash and via Facebook, Derry NH police
It’s a HARD No!!
Saw a girl onTT who had a suspicious wet spot in ceiling after she got back from vacation. She called the landlord and he said he would stop by the next day. Girl goes to bed and hears a crash a few hours later, ceiling collapsed and she was inundated with roaches and mice. Video ended with her in hotel.
Oi oi oi!! A shower of vermin raining down on me would be my absolute WORST nightmare. Burn that apartment down!!!!
/o\
I have two grandsnakes. A ball python and a gorgeous purple corn snake. Both are very sweet although the corn snake is more demure and shy. My daughter takes such wonderful care of them and is very careful about securing their habitats. The corn snake has managed to escape a couple times.
I am the only grandparent who will lavish them with attention.
I am so frightened of snakes that it doesn’t matter that the python is non venomous; it could kill me anyway when it caused a heart attack or ssssssstroke. I hate snakes!
True story – one day while listening to a veterinarian segment on NPR, he told the story of a 15′ python that the owner slept (I kid you not) with every night. The owner was concerned because the snake had stopped eating several days before. The vet explained that the snake was fasting to prepare to eat the owner. This whole story did me in.
I have about an average fear of snakes, whatever evolutionary remnant is left basically, but this story makes my blood run cold.
I feel like this is an urban legend or something, I’ve heard this story so many times lol. I dont know how it got out there -maybe it was NPR that started it – but I’ve had at least 5 or7 different people tell me this. sometimes its “a friend of mine had a snake” and sometimes its a friend of a friend lol. I guess its one of those stories that sticks with you.
I hate snakes. I know they serve an important role in the ecosystem yada yada yada. Thats fine. Serve that important role far away from me.
The version I saw it was a family pet sizing up the daughter.
My guess is that there is truth in it, as far as maybe that is what a snake might do, fast to prepare for a large meal. Whether anyone actually experienced this personally? Who knows? I also wonder, if it is a pet that is being fed regularly, would it look for it’s own menu?
This reminded me of a news story that happened near me 2 or 3 years ago. A trained, experienced reptile rescuer was strangled by his 18’ reticulated python. The snake was wrapped so tight around his neck the police had to shoot the snake to rescue the guy and he died a couple of days later.
Even when they’re bred in captivity, animals never really lose all their wild instincts. Years ago, my friend’s mother was attacked by their cocker spaniel who they had for years and never showed any signs of aggression. She ended up with dozens of stitches in her face & needed plastic surgery. It was terrible.
As a dog trainer and constant student of dog behavior and body language, I very much doubt that cocker spainel gave ‘no signs’ before the attack. More likely the people missed many signs that the dog was stressed or scared. Dog attacks on family are a last resort out of frustration that people are not responding to it’s signals for help.
Snakes are often very beautiful, and the constrictors I’ve handled felt amazing — all pouring, muscled silk.
But I would never live with one large enough to harm me. They’re not domestic animals. And even animals that are domesticated can harm people if their boundaries & limitations are not respected.
Oh my word. I would be shaken for weeks if that happened to me. I am terrified of unpredictable scaly creatures, especially big ones. No matter that it’s not venomous, it’s still scary!
Once we were in Mexico on an extended family vacation. I was doing a crossword puzzle on my chair by the pool when there was a loud “Thwumph!” and a huge iguana just landed inches from me on the ground. I jumped up and stood on my chair screaming to get away from it. I thought it had fallen on my head!
It turns out iguanas mate in trees, and when they are finished they have spent all of their energy so they just fall hard like that. Everyone was laughing at me for a full fifteen minutes. My kids, my nephews, my sister-in-law. I must have looked ridiculous. But I defend my reaction. Imagine a huge iguana just landing on you with no warning, lol.
Nope!! Gooooooooood-bye! That’s the snake’s apartment now. You win! I’m out!
I have kept small snakes although they’re not my favorite as pets. (The thing is, a fair number of people are allergic to reptile saliva, so even a nonvenomous species’ bite can be nasty if they break the skin.)
The snake is completely innocent. It is the owner’s fault ENTIRELY.
Pfft, that’s nothing. We currently have a 5-foot escaped water monitor lizard on the loose in our woods. His name is Goose. I feel like I’m watching a cryptid be born.
https://people.com/carnivorous-lizard-escapes-home-through-second-story-window-11782285
This happened in my city when I was a kid. A very large snake fell through the drop ceiling into someone’s living room.
They lived near a pet store that carried snakes, and as this was a long time ago, I now am not sure if the newspaoer article reported that the snake was on the loose from the store, or if my kid brain just made that connection. But I have had what I thought was an irrational fear of this happening to me ever since, and seeing this story makes me think maybe it is NOT that irrational a fear.
I also wonder if the police in this case got the call and thought “well what do you want US to do about it , Lady?” because NH is not exactly Florida. Large snakes are not somethingtey likely get calls about frequently.