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CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (N Carolina) 14 July 05 Copperhead bites Mint Hill woman (Mark Boone)
A Copperhead snake is blamed for sending a Mint Hill woman to the hospital. The woman is recovering from two snakebites as wildlife experts say snake sightings near Charlotte are on the rise.
Copperheads are the only poisonous snake calling Mecklenburg County home. They are known to hide in the woods. But when the woods disappear the snakes wind up in backyards and on subdivision streets.
“We were right in the middle of the road. No grass, No trees, No limbs around us,” said bite victim Sharon Heath.
Heath said she never saw the snake.
“It was like somebody stabbed me, threw gasoline on me, and then torched me off, all in one like that,” Heath said.
The four fang marks were still visible in Heath’s foot.
“It's just unbelievable how intense this pain is,” Heath said.
The Copperhead was lying in the middle of her subdivision street.
“The fact that I stepped on it, I'm sure it just defended itself,” said Heath.
Snake bites in Mecklenburg County are uncommon according to the Charlotte Nature Center. Snake sightings are not. The Charlotte Nature Center said most sightings involve Rat snakes or King snakes. The center said most snakes are forced from their home by development.
“If you tear down their habitat, they don't have any place to live. So they're going be out and about trying to find a place to live,” said Amanda Young with the Nature Center.
Sharon Heath spent two days in the hospital, is on morphine for the pain, and on crutches as her leg is still swollen.
“I just don't want this to happen to anybody,” Heath said. “It's amazing how life can change in a split second.”
While Copperheads are the only venomous snake living in Mecklenburg County, any snake will bite if provoked or stepped on. Heath plans several more visits to the doctor, but does not expect any long-term health effects from her snakebites.
Copperhead snakes prefer heavily wooded areas, but are also known to hide in stacks of firewood. Snake sightings are more common in the spring and summer, and rare in the winter when reptiles are normally dormant.
Copperhead bites Mint Hill woman

Hmmm.
How do you manage to be in wide open view, step on a snake, get bit twice, and never see it?
Even for the average person who wouldn't be out looking for snakes... I think you might notice that you're stepping on one out in the middle of a street. Especially when it starts biting you.
I'm sure it's impossible that she was trying to step on it to kill it though....
-Will