Reptile & Amphibian Forums

WCBS (New York, New York) 10 June 08 Snake Found Coiled Around L.I. Baby's Leg In Crib (Jennifer McLogan)
Brentwood, N.Y. (CBS): You've heard of snakes on a place. How about snakes in a crib?
That's what happened to a Long Island family after they discovered a California King Snake inside their baby's crib while she was sleeping.
"An urban legend, you don't believe it could really happen," grandmother Joyce Abatemarco said.
A real life urban legend came true. The 2-3-foot long constrictor that will grow to a size of more than 8 feet was discovered in the crib, wrapped around the leg of tiny 7-month-old Isabella Abatemarco, visiting her grandparents in Brentwood from upstate Troy.
"No grandfather wants to come home to find a snake wrapped around her leg," John Abatemarco said.
In the middle of the night it was Uncle Charlie who heard the shrieks upstairs of mother Cari and her daughter, Isabella.
"I heard screaming and I came running into the room. The snake dropped off her leg into crib. I grabbed a back scratcher to capture it, not knowing if it was venomous," Charles Vecchiarelli said.
The Abatemarcos say they hand just purchased the mattress from Toys R Us in Bay Shore. They took photos of the mattress before they returned it. It was a baby Sealy with plastic packaging they they say was open before they bought it, never dreaming that a hungry and thirsty snake might possibly be slithered up inside. They've hired a lawyer and plan to sue.
"Either the heat from the baby drew the snake out of the mattress or just the snake migrated out on its own looking for a meal," attorney Brian Gunn said.
The snake is not poisonous, but also not indigenous to Long Island. The plan now is to have it adopted by an exotic animal expert.
The snake is being cared for at the Islip Town Animal Shelter. The toy store and mattress company say they are not aware of the case, and won't comment on pending litigation.
Snake Found Coiled Around L.I. Baby's Leg In Crib

NEWSDAY (Melville, New York) 11 June 08 Family says mattress packaging allowed snake into crib (Patrick Whittle)
While it remains a mystery how a California king snake slithered into the crib of a 7-month-old baby in Brentwood, the girl's family yesterday announced plans to sue the manufacturer and the retailer of a mattress they believe must have housed the reptile.
Brian Gunn, a Garden City attorney who represents the family of young Isabella LaScala, made the announcement in front of a scrum of news reporters who had descended on Isabella's grandparents' house yesterday.
Neither the manufacturer, Sealy, nor the retailer, Toys R Us, returned phone calls yesterday.
Isabella and her mother, Cari Abatemarco, who live in upstate Troy, were spending the night at Abatemarco's parents' Brentwood home last week when Isabella's cries woke her mother. Abatemarco said she responded and found the snake, which family members said was 4 feet long, wrapped around Isabella's leg. Isabella was unharmed. Islip animal control officers earlier had said it was a foot long.
The family, which says it bought the mattress at a Bay Shore Toys R Us, claims the snake got into the mattress package through a rip in its plastic wrap, Gunn said. The snake then embedded itself in the mattress by crawling inside a cloth covering that is loosely stitched to the mattress, he said.
Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said it is not uncommon for pet snakes to get loose and turn up on other residents' properties. The SPCA has picked up "about 93 different snakes and alligators over the last year," he said.
The snake the Abatemarcos found, he said, "most likely was somebody's pet and it got into the house. They don't like extreme heat."
The family has since returned the mattress, Gunn said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-lisnak115722186jun11,0,3035522.story

THE GOTHAMIST (New York, New York) 11 June 08 Snake in a Crib, Part 2: The Lawsuit! (Jen Chung)
[COLOR="Green"]Photo of the baby-binding beast at URL below: Images of the California king snake, now in Islip animal shelter custody, from WNBC
The family who found a California King snake wrapped around a 7-month-old baby's leg on Monday has decided to sue the mattress manufacturer and store where the mattress was purchased.
Baby Isabella and her mother Cari Abatemarco had been visiting her grandparents' home in Brentwood, on Long Island, and grandfather John Abatemarco said, "No grandfather wants to come home to find a snake wrapped around [his granddaughter's] leg." And her uncle Charlie described the scene, "I heard screaming and I came running into the room. The snake dropped off her leg into crib. I grabbed a back scratcher to capture it, not knowing if it was venomous." (It wasn't.)
Now the family will sue Toys R Us and mattress maker Sealy, claiming the mattress wasn't properly packaged when it was sold. While some suspect the snake, which is not indigenous to Long Island, may have been someone's pet that got loose and then slithered into the Abatemarco house to beat the heat, their lawyer said, "Either the heat from the baby drew the snake out of the mattress or just the snake migrated out on its own looking for a meal."
As for the mattress, it's been returned--and it's unclear what Toys R Us will be doing with it! And here's some other good bedding advice: Never bring home used or discarded mattresses, box frames, springs, etc., because they might be infested with bedbugs.
http://gothamist.com/2008/06/11/snake_in_a_crib_part_2_the_lawsuit.php