On the outskirts of Tyler, there's something prowling in the woods. It's slithering actually, and what he or she has left behind is pretty terrifying.
A large Boa constrictor is loose somewhere near County Road 2253. That's just off the Old Henderson Highway. The snake shed a skin to prove it.
"I went to open my [pickup truck] door and when I went to open this door, I just saw it laying here -- about three foot of snakeskin," said Bob Mercer, who now knows he didn't know the half of it.
He had to unfurl the rest. It came to more than nine feet.
He's showing everyone -- his wife, wildlife officers and the neighbor across the street, Lisa.
"She just got the heebie-jeebies and said, 'I don't want to see it! I don't want to see it!" Mercer says.
Lisa, who didn't want to give her last name, told us, "Honestly, I jumped in the car and left. You wanted to get out of there. I did. Especially because my boys are one and two. I don't want that thing anywhere near them."
"What's really amazing is that since it's shed its skin, its getting bigger," Bob said
It really is a danger to the neighborhood, especially to all the small animals out there.
Mercer: "Our cat is named Kit Kat. She's more or less freaked out. She's hunting everything now.
Reporter: "But this may just be a little out of her league."
Mercer: "Yeah, I'd say so. She'd definitely need lessons, karate or something, to take the snake out."
Parks and Wildlife thinks it's someone's pet that got loose or was dumped. Someone's big pet. Mercer said he's had some advice.
"You should wait until the afternoon when it's active and go around and look for it."
Reporter: "Are you going to do something like that?"
Mercer: "I doubt it seriously."
Everyone's watching their kids and their kittens. Now, the Boa constrictor's primary diet is rodents, lizards, and some birds -- mainly small prey it can easily ambush. They're not poisonous, but can injure by wrapping themselves around the neck. Those attacks are rare.
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