Woman finds python in washing machine

Tag : washing hand
Mara Ranger said that when her load of laundry was done, shereached into the machine and felt something move. "I take my jeans out, and then I put my hand back in there to getmore, and something moved under my hand," Ranger said. "I jumpedback and, all of a sudden, its head starts coming out of thewashing machine. It looked huge." Ranger said she closed the lid but fought her fear and did not slamit to avoid hurting the snake. Then she called the police andanimal control and e-mailed WMTW. Getting the twisted snake into a bag proved to be harder thanexpected as the snake made a mad dash toward the crowd thatgathered around the washing machine. Ranger's mother, Mary, nearlycollapsed. "I had the willy-willies, and I'm not kidding," Mary Ranger said. Initially, authorities thought the snake was 4-foot boaconstrictor, but it turned out to be a reticulated python. Richard Burton of Maine Animal Damage Control arrived to handle theincident. He's been to a half-dozen snake recoveries this yearalone, but even he couldn't believe his eyes. "Last year in Lewiston, I took one out of a woman's shower; it camedown her shower head," Burton said. "They get very dehydrated, andthey can sense a water source and they go to it, travel in pipes,suspended ceilings, in bathrooms, anything like that to get to awater source." Burton said the snake used to be somebody's pet. He guessed thatonce it grew larger, the owners tossed it out in the wild.Officials said it had been living on its own for at least a month. "Now that it's gone, I'm going to be checking crevasses andcorners," Ranger said. "I'm going to be looking in the tub first --before and after, maybe even during the rinse cycle. I'm just alittle paranoid right now." The python is heading to its new home at New York's Wild AnimalKingdom.