Rattlesnake bites Wal-Mart customer

(Sanford, Florida-NBC) July 25, 2006 - A central Florida man is in the hospital after being bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake at a Wal-Mart garden center.

Friends say the snake bit the 51-year-old wheelchair-bound man as he reached into a plant at a store in Sanford, about 25 miles northeast of Orlando.

They estimate the rattler was between 15 and 18 inches long.

Mary Panagopulos, the victim's friend, said, "I was in the next aisle. He started yelling, 'I got bit by a snake, I got bit by a snake.' I ran over there and saw the snake on him."

Another friend, Jerry Battaglia, said, "I saw it on his hand and when he yanked it off, his hand began bleeding at that time. He beat it with his cane, rolled over it with his feet..."

Wal-Mart closed the garden section while animal control officers searched for a possible second snake, but employees found only one. They killed it.

The company called the snake "an isolated incident" and says it is taking precautions to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to Central Florida Regional Hospital and given antivenin. He is in stable condition.

A company spokesperson also says she could not find a specific Wal-Mart policy about plant inspections.

The company believes the snake may have found its way into the garden center after the plants arrived at the store.

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of course this story

has been in news before with it changing slightly and while could be very true, but wonder why other places that get plants from same outlets never make a bite scenario type of headline ? I mean with a spouse in very upper management of that company and knows the wholesalers of plant facilities that also sells to Lows Hardware, Dillions, etc, never seems to have this happen or at least not news worthy. Just kinda makes it strange.........then there was the person that planted the dead hot snake in show box.............

I just post the news as it's found, I give no credibility to it's accuracy lol.

While this instance may be genuine, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future we see another story where this fellow is brought up on charges for fraud. It happened last year with a wal mart in Texas I believe. Apparently that one was someone hoping for a lucrative lawsuit.

I do know that herps hitch rides in shrubbery etc. A friend of mine used to take Christmas trees to other states to sell and he always took a few dug trees along. He found a timber rattler in the ball of a tree once after he got to his destination.
We also have periodic findings of water moccasins around here. They do not range here however. The sightings are usually in relatively close proximity to nurseries and I have always assumed they hitched rides from the low country.
Some of the people here however, based on these sightings, insist that they are found here.

I always find it unlikely that stories like the one here are genuine. It seems odd considering the number of times the plants are moved and handled that a snake would still be in there unnoticed by the time a customer got to it.