Deputies Andrew Adams and Kevin Culver recently responded to reports of a cold-blooded intruder in the basement of Jamie Regan’s residence.
The slithering squatter was cranky, cornered and measured in at a little more than six feet.
“Black rat snake,” said Regan via email to The Nugget. “They can get up to seven feet long. And this one was on his way.”
Prior to making the call, Regan had tried all kinds of methods to drive out the unwanted reptile, including playing music and spraying essential oils around her Chinkapin Drive basement.
Apparently the snake only seemed to appreciate the spa-like treatment.
Finally Regan decided to involve the authorities and contacted the LCSO in order to obtain a phone number for the DNR.
But Adams and Culver stopped by instead.
“Culver said ‘I’ll take care of the call' and he goes en route and Adams went in with him,” said Lt. Alan Roach of the LCSO.
Once on the scene, Adams took the lead on the removal.
However, the big basement snake didn’t go without a fight.
“He was bitten on the right thumb,” said Roach.
Despite the bite Adams kept his cool and relocated the reptile to a nearby wooded area where it peacefully slithered away from the scene.
“The snake was not harmed and was released into the woods,” said Regan.
Though the snake was definitely non-venomous, Adams was advised to go get a tetanus shot just to be safe.
“Their mouths are so dirty,” said Roach. “They can definitely get you.”
Roach added that these wildlife wrangling encounters are really all part of the job for local law enforcement. And as a veteran lawman, he’s seen plenty of them.
DEPUTY VS. WILD
“We’ll get dog calls, coyote calls, feral cats, ground hogs going under people’s houses,” he said. “You just never know.”
Roach said he learned from experience that confidence is key when removing a snake.
But that’s easier said than done once the bigger ones start to wrap around your arm.
“The only reason I know that is seeing other people that were catching snakes on calls, before I decided I was going to do it,” he said.
Eventually he was called into action as a snake wrangler when he went to a similar call on Red Oak Flats Road years ago.
“All of a sudden you’re the only person on a call and you’ve got people standing on top of chairs and dining room tables screaming and asking you to help them,” he said.
While it was a less stressful scene on Chinkapin Drive, Regan wanted to make sure that Culver and Adams got their due credit for helping to keep her basement safe, secure and snake-free.
“I’m not afraid of snakes,” she said. “But I sure don’t want to live with them.”