TOCCOA RECORD (Georgia) 13 July 07 Police capture two ‘snakey’ characters
On Thursday, June 7, Charles and Elizabeth Turlington of Addington Drive received a surprise visitor.
An indigo-black king snake, measuring more five feet in length, was holed up in the outside vent of the clothes dryer next to the back steps of the Turlington residence.
The snake was coiled around the vent cover and into the vent itself.
“Snakes can back up. You can see their beady eyes looking at you as they slide backwards,” Elizabeth Turlington testified.
She called animal control, but no one was available.
She then call 9-1-1.
Toccoa police officers Gary Bryson and Joe Smith responded.
Elizabeth turned on the dryer to force heat that caused the snake to reappear and drop to the concrete floor of the carport.
Bryson caught the snake behind the head and held him while Turlington captured the incident with a photograph.
The officers placed the snake in a double-lined bag and took it to Black Mountain where it was released.
The officers told Turlington that black snakes are valuable and eat rodents and poisonous snakes.
Now, the rest of the story.
Later in the evening of the same day, Turlington took a peep up the outside dryer vent and saw more beady snake eyes.
They immediately called 9-1-1
Charles Turlington kept the snake at bay with his cane until a policeman arrived.
Once again it was Bryson who had just gotten off duty, but returned when the snake call came in.
He brought along a long pole and picked up the snake as the dryer heat ran it out. This one was a rat snake - not quite as big as the first one nabbed that day.
“We would like to thank officers Bryson and Smith for handling the situation so well,” Elizabeth Turlington said. “If they can handle snakes, they can handle anything.”
Police capture two ‘snakey’ characters