I will relate one puzzling incident that I experienced in about 1973-1974 regarding wild Pythons. This was before I even owned a retile business personally. At the time I worked in low level management for Sears Roebuck and Co. I was the guy the police, animal services, and the Fire Dept. called if there was a reptile problem in Lee County, FL which is located in S.W. Florida. I was reffered to a lady living off Hiway 82 in the country in those days about a lg. snake she had placed a number 3 wash tub over. I called for directions and suggested the lady simply release it as it was likely an Indigo Snake. She said "sonny boy" I was born here and this ain't no durn Gopher Snake . The snake was described as being over 10' long. spotted, and hissing loud while tryng to bite. I asked my boss if I could run out at lunch and get the snake and he said yes. When I got there it was a Burmese Python about 8-9' long and obviously NOT a pet as it had some scars and was extremely hostile. At that time period Burmese Pythons were still NOT a common snake and in fact Indian Pythons in Herpetoculture were likely more common as imports of Indian's stopped from Pakistan in the late 60's I believe but were still held in collections in some numbers. I hunted herps for years in S.E. Florida and S.W. Florida and everywhere in between and until the last 6-8 years had never seen another one. I was good friends with many of the old time snake hunters and Larry Robertson is here about once or twice a week even today. They never saw any either. There were only about 10-12 people that I knew in the area that collected and kept snakes in that time period. It didn't belong to any of them and Burmese Pythons were quite expensive and hard to obtain in those days. I have often wondered where that snake came from. I kept it for about 2 years and it acted like a wild snake in that it never tamed down and was a poor eater. I traded it off as I remember because Burmese Pythons were highly sought after in those days..If it had been a captive it would have had to escape as they were too valuable to release..To put it in perpective a Burmese that size in those days if offered for sale say by Bill Chase a long dead famous animal dealer in Miami would have sold for $125-$150 each. I don't know what the equivelent would be in money today but for me it was a princely sum in those days...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

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