SUN-GAZETTE (Williamsport, Pennsylvania) 20 July 07 Snake in a bed (Eric Long)
A snake lover’s pet python slithered hither and yon, pushing and knocking over furniture along the way last week and was thought to be gone for good before it was found in the last place its owner thought to look.
Claude Culbreth, who shares his home at 1505 High St. with his pets — two snakes and a dachshund — said one of the snakes escaped last week and made a mess of the home.
“When I came home, I thought my home was burglarized,” said Culbreth, who works at White Deer Run Treatment Center. “I thought it was burglarized because this chair was pushed way over here, away from the wall, and the couch was pushed out.”
Several other pieces of furniture were knocked over and items that had been on them were scattered across the floor as well.
“I didn’t even think about the snake,” he said. “I just thought that if I was robbed, the guy was pretty sloppy.”
Culbreth said his dog was loose and was barking frantically and he didn’t understand why at first.
“Then I saw that my snake wasn’t there (in its tank) and I thought someone stole my snake,” Culbreth said.
When he looked closer, he saw a side panel to the homemade glass and wood tank he’d built was pushed out. He realized his reticulated python had instead escaped by pushing its way out of its tank.
“I started looking under the furniture, turning the couch upside down to see if he had gone there to get warm, and I couldn’t find it,” Culbreth said.
The snake isn’t a small one, either. At 13 and a half feet in length and weighing in at 55 pounds, the snake should have been easy to find.
But Culbreth said he searched for four to five hours to no avail.
“I looked all over and gave up eventually,” he said. “Then I went upstairs to get ready for bed and, lo and behold, 13 1/2 feet of python was curled up in a ball under the covers of my bed.”
The python, which he said is about five years old, had crawled up to the second floor and found the warmest place it could, which was its owner’s place to sleep.
Culbreth said it wasn’t the first time the snake had escaped. Earlier this year, it pulled a Houdini and Culbreth called police, thinking the reptile had been stolen, only to find it later. He had to call police to tell them he had recaptured the python.
Snakes such as Culbreth’s python are known for pushing their way out of their tanks, said a zookeeper at Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood.
“It would definitely be able to move a couch or move furniture,” zookeeper Courtney Russo said. “I don’t have exact measurements as to how strong they are, but they can be very powerful. Reticulated pythons can kill small deer or wild boar by constricting them.”
Reticulated pythons come from South and Central America, she said, and need to stay warm because they are cold-blooded reptilians.
The reticulated pythons at Reptiland are about 13 feet long, she said. “I believe the world record for them is 30 feet in length.”
Russo recommends that python owners make tanks from a solid piece of wood or other material to prevent escapes.
“Even with the smallest crack, they will find it,” she said. “Snakes in general are good escape artists.”
Culbreth, who also has a much smaller king snake, said he made immediate improvements to the snake’s tank.
“I’ve replaced the nails with screws,” he said. “What he did was he got wedged into the corner and just pushed the panel out.”
Culbreth said he got interested in snakes 10 or 15 years ago and has kept them for pets since.
“I love them,” he said. “I got into them to have people inquire about them. Now I let the kids pet him and that takes their fear of snakes away.”
Still, he said he hopes his pet, which is expected to grow up to 20 feet in length, will stay put from now on.
Snake in a bed