Residents alarmed to hear of missing snake

REXBURG, Idaho - Residents of an apartment complex are keeping an eye out for a neighbor's python, which was reported missing this week. The 8 1/2-foot Burmese python escaped from its cage sometime Wednesday, said owners Chelsea Carter and Jeff Perrenoud.

They think the snake, named Bessy, went through a hole in their bathroom wall. They went around the complex this week putting up signs about their missing snake, and offering tips on how to handle her.

"She is very friendly, but we want everyone to be very cautious around her because the hole she fell through had nails in it, so I am sure she was hurt and is cranky," Perrenoud said. "We hope she is just curled up in the wall in our apartment."

Some of their neighbors are not afraid of snakes, and took the news calmly.

"I thought it was hilarious," Chelsea Grafe said. "It will probably sneak up in the bed when my husband and I are asleep and try sleeping with us to get warm."

But one family spent the night with friends.

"I am deathly afraid of snakes," Lindsay Garner said. "I haven't been up to my apartment since I found out."

Perrenoud reported the missing snake to local police and animal control officers, but asked neighbors to tell him first if they find it. Meanwhile, he and Carter have asked the building managers for permission to remove a wall to get at the place where they think the snake is hiding.

Carter's father, who owns a wallboard company, has offered to rebuild the wall.

"We just want to get her back," Perrenaud said. "It is Chelsea's baby. She has been in tears about it ever since Bessy went missing."

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Python Still on the Loose

An eight and a half foot python has been on the loose in Rexburg for six days now. The owners found the snake’s cage wide open and figured she slithered into a hole in the wall.

"We don't really know where it is but it's crawling around somewhere in these walls,” said resident Daven Lake.

Daven Lake is not only adjusting to being a newlywed but also to the fact that he might be living with an eight and a half foot snake. Bessie the Python is lost in this apartment building in downtown Rexburg.

“It could be down in my apt. So I'm a little scared,” Lake said.

Daven first found out about the snake when a firefighter asked him this peculiar question.

“The guy stopped me and he said, ‘Hey, have you seen a 10 foot python around here?’ I just started to laugh, ‘good joke, officer, ha ha,’ and he looks at me like he's serious,” Lake said.

This is no joke at all, especially for Daven's new wife.

"She's freaked out. She's a little scared of snakes and I guess snakes aren't my favorite friend either,” said Daven.

Rexburg police are still constantly checking the building for any signs of the missing snake and now have an animal control officer on the case.

“This thing is in the wild now. If it's startled or injured, if it's hungry, you know it could hurt somebody,” said Rexburg Police Capt. Randy Lewis.

Which is exactly what the managers of the building are concerned about.

"The crazy thing is that I manage the apartment. So everyone is calling me asking what's going on with this big snake in their walls,” said Timothy Allred.

Not the most inviting thing to hear when you first move into an apartment.

"Someone just barely moved in and I was scared to have them walk past the signs that said, ‘Beware of the eight and a half foot python in your wall,’” Allred added.”

Rexburg police are encouraging people to call if they suspect a snake in the area, but they also say to not confront the snake or touch it.

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Must be one heck of a construction job, if an 8.5 ft burm can crawl around in the walls, lol. Makes me wonder if they did a good search of their apartment...and even if they know what that entails.
(and if they think it is in the wall, they should have just checked there vs advertising that the snake escaped and causing such a fuss...)

REXBURG, Idaho - Bessy the Burmese python is recovering in an animal shelter after spending two weeks dodging searchers and an infrared camera in a 57,000-square-foot apartment complex in this southeastern Idaho town.

The 8-foot-snake's hiding spot was found Tuesday by another "snake" - a 100-foot-long device with a camera on the end normally used to locate plumbing problems in hard-to-reach places.

"It's the most interesting plumbing job I've had so far," said Kip Salas of Advanced Plumbing, who discovered Bessy in the bathroom ceiling after a three-hour search of the apartment below the unit from which she escaped.

"I'm just glad she's alive and not hurt too badly," Chelsea Stanford, the python's owner, told the Post Register.

After finding the snake, Stanford and animal control officers tried to lure her out with a white rat snack without success. So they lassoed Bessy with a steel collar and dragged her from the hole in the ceiling. Bessy received some scratches during her ordeal - and an eviction notice.

"We're going to let it eat, then it's leaving the building forever," said Kevin Kennedy, the apartment owner, who wanted the snake out of the complex dead or alive.

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and some islands in the East Indies. They can grow to 20 feet, weigh up to 200 pounds, and live about 25 years. Not venomous, pythons wrap their bodies around small animals to suffocate them before eating them whole.

Bessy went missing two weeks ago after apparently escaping through a hole in a bathroom wall. Stanford put up notices around the complex about the missing python, which caused some residents to refuse to spend the night in their apartments.

"We weren't too nervous but we'll definitely sleep better," said resident Ben Brown after Bessy's capture. "As long as there aren't any rattling noises in the walls.

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there was another article that stated that the snake's eyes were glazed over from hunger when they found it, lol (must be why it didn't eat the white rat)...I'll try to dig that up & post it

KIFI (Idaho Falls, Idaho) 21 February 06
The 8 1/2 foot python has been found in Rexburg. It was found under the apartment it escaped from.
The owner of the building hired a plumbing company to come in with special cable equipped with a camera on the end.
The 100 foot cable is able to move around the nooks and crannies in the walls and pipes.
The 8 1/2 foot python was found, its eyes glazed because it was hungry.
It was curled up in the ceiling above the shower in the apartment below the owner's place.
The people who lived in the apartment couldn't believe they had been showering with a python for the past two weeks.
They say they're happy to have it out.
Getting the snake out took efforts from police, animal control, plumbers and the owner of the snake and even a rat. They used the rat to lure the snake out from from the ceiling.
Everyone is excited to have the snake out of their building. The building owner says that some of the women in the building that refused to sleep there will now be able to come back and get a good night's sleep.
Luckily no one was injured and the snake is not injured either just a little hungry.
The snake is now in possession of animal control in Rexburg, they say they are taking good care of it and now looking for a new home for the snake instead of an apartment building.
http://www.localnews8.com/news/local/2347856.html

LOL, anyone notice how the snake went from 8 1/2 feet, to 10 feet, to 8 feet, then back to 8 1/2 feet?

Eyes "glazed from hunger".....that's a classic.

Well, here is the end of the story apparently. The landlord sued the tenant who countersued and the case went before the esteemed Judge Judy on television.

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Judge Judy had plenty to say in the case involving local reptile celebrity Bessy, the Burmese Python that got loose in a Rexburg apartment complex.

The case received attention from Judge Judy after Bessy escaped into the walls of her owner’s apartment.

Bessy’s owner, Chelsea Carter, filed a lawsuit against her apartment manager, Kevin Kennedy, in March. Kennedy filed a countersuit and the case was sent to Judge Judy’s television courtroom.

During the televised proceedings the outspoken judge has plenty to say.

“He didn’t make you get rid of her,” Judy said, “The day you wanted to go with your snake, the day they got him out, you take your snake and you go live with your father. He didn’t make you get rid of her; he said you’re not coming to my house.”

After all was said and done, Judge Judy ruled in favor of Kennedy.

“He had a right to evict you, you violated the lease, what’s next?” said Judy, “Judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $880.00, your counter claim is dismissed.”

All expenses for both parties, including the loser’s fees, were covered by the show.

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