NATIONAL POST (Toronto, Ontario) 18 May 04 Curiosity might have been fatal for truck driver picking up 'venomous' box
A curious pickup truck driver in Little Rock, Ark., spotted a box in the grass marked "Live venomous reptile" and stopped to take a look.
"I went over and kicked the box," said Paul Mitchell, before looking inside and finding a cloth bag slithering into the form of a cobra ready to strike.
He hurriedly drove his find to Little Rock Zoo, figuring it would have a snake handler.
Randal Berry, the zoo's reptile keeper, said the cobra was very aggressive as he pulled it from the sack, repeatedly rearing its hooded head.
But it turned out the snake had other venomous company: also in the box were a 14-inch-long twig snake; an East African bright green mamba six feet long; and a four-foot black mamba. All are highly venomous and there is no antivenin in Arkansas.
City officials said they are hopeful all the snakes are accounted for and there are no others out there slithering around.
Curiosity might have been fatal for truck driver picking up 'venomous' box