Current:Home > ScamsVideo shows hissing snake found in Arizona woman's toilet: "My worst nightmare"-LoTradeCoin
Video shows hissing snake found in Arizona woman's toilet: "My worst nightmare"
View Date:2024-12-23 23:50:29
Like a scene out of a horror movie, Michelle Lespron returned to her Tucson, Arizona, home to find a snake had set up camp in her toilet.
"I'd been gone for four days and was looking forward to using my own restroom in peace. I lifted up the lid and he or she was curled up," Lespron told The Associated Press. "Thank God the lid was closed."
The encounter happened July 15. But Lespron has been getting messages from family, friends and even people she went to high school with since Rattlesnake Solutions, the Phoenix-based company that removed the snake, recently posted an employee's video.
The 20-second video shows the snake being pulled out of the toilet bowl and then hissing straight at the camera.
"Everybody has the same reaction: Oh my god, that's my worst nightmare," she said.
Other people thought it was a prank video and the snake was a prop. "Even my law partner was like 'Ha ha. Nice gag,'" Lespron, a personal injury attorney, said.
Lespron says her father tried to wrangle the snake that same night but it slithered away. So, she called Rattlesnake Solutions the next morning.
It took the handler - who Lespron calls "my hero" - three tries to get the black and pink coachwhip snake firmly in his grasp. He was able to wrestle the snake with one hand while capturing it all on his cellphone with the other.
The handler later released the snake, which measured between 3 feet and 4 feet long, in a natural habitat elsewhere.
Bryan Hughes, the owner of Rattlesnake Solutions, said it wasn't the first time his staff have seen a coachwhip snake in a home though it's rare to find reptiles in residences.
"We are called to catch one or two snakes in toilets each year, and it is very uncommon," Rattlesnake Solutions wrote on its Facebook page. "These snakes may get into the plumbing through vaults in septic systems, flushed in from other homes, and a variety of other situations. If you're seeing this and thinking you need to put your home on the market, you should know this is among the rarest of situations we are called to handle."
Fortunately for Lespron, the species is non-venomous. Still, she was taking no chances.
After her reptile run-in, Lespron used her guest bathroom for three weeks before feeling comfortable enough to go back to her own. And she no longer enters the bathroom in the dark, and always lifts the lid ever so slowly.
Snakes have been found in toilets around the world in recent years.
In 2021, a 5-foot python slithered through an Austrian man's drain and bit him while he was sitting on the toilet. Emergency services removed the snake, and the man was treated for minor injuries.
In 2020, a man in California was about to use the toilet when a boa constrictor popped out. The snake was handed over to animal control.
In 2017, a Texas family was horrified to find a rattlesnake in their toilet, and then dozens more underneath their house.
In 2018, a snake was found slithering in a Virginia Beach toilet. Said the homeowner who made the shocking discovery: "Look down before you sit down."
- In:
- Arizona
- snake
- Tucson
veryGood! (3)
Related
- Inter Miami's MLS playoff failure sets stage for Messi's last act, Alexi Lalas says
- More Than a Decade of Megadrought Brought a Summer of Megafires to Chile
- Shakira Steps Out for Slam Dunk Dinner With NBA Star Jimmy Butler
- Prigozhin's rebellion undermined Putin's standing among Russian elite, officials say
- Climate Advocacy Groups Say They’re Ready for Trump 2.0
- New US Car and Truck Emissions Standards Will Make or Break Biden’s Climate Legacy
- Carbon Removal Projects Leap Forward With New Offset Deal. Will They Actually Help the Climate?
- Inside Climate News Staff Writers Liza Gross and Aydali Campa Recognized for Accountability Journalism
- Former West Virginia jail officer pleads guilty to civil rights violation in fatal assault on inmate
- Cocaine sharks may be exposed to drugs in the Florida Keys, researchers say
Ranking
- Today Reveals Hoda Kotb's Replacement
- Climate Resolution Voted Down in El Paso After Fossil Fuel Interests and Other Opponents Pour More Than $1 Million into Opposition
- ‘Rewilding’ Parts of the Planet Could Have Big Climate Benefits
- Joe Jonas Admits He Pooped His White Pants While Performing On Stage
- Incredible animal moments: Watch farmer miraculously revive ailing chick, doctor saves shelter dogs
- Netflix debuts first original African animation series, set in Zambia
- U.S. cruises to 3-0 win over Vietnam in its Women's World Cup opener
- Why Saving the Whales Means Saving Ourselves
Recommendation
-
Craig Melvin replacing Hoda Kotb as 'Today' show co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie
-
Mourning, and Celebration: A Funeral for a Coal-Fired Power Plant
-
Margot Robbie, Matt Damon and More Stars Speak Out as SAG-AFTRA Goes on Strike
-
Logan Paul's Company Prime Defends Its Energy Drink Amid Backlash
-
College Football Playoff snubs: Georgia among teams with beef after second rankings
-
Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos' Son Michael Now Has a Role With Real Housewives
-
Khloe Kardashian Defends Blac Chyna From Twisted Narrative About Co-Parenting Dream Kardashian
-
Climate Change Wiped Out Thousands of the West’s Most Iconic Cactus. Can Planting More Help a Species that Takes a Century to Mature?
Like
- Maine elections chief who drew Trump’s ire narrates House tabulations in livestream
- Glee's Kevin McHale Recalls His & Naya Rivera's Shock After Cory Monteith's Tragic Death
- From Gas Wells to Rubber Ducks to Incineration, the Plastics Lifecycle Causes ‘Horrific Harm’ to the Planet and People, Report Shows