PIKESVILLE, Md. — It was a once-in-a-lifetime call for All Star Pest Management in Catonsville.
When a "quite panicked" customer called Tuesday to report a 10-foot python in their backyard, All Star branch manager Ihab Sahal thought: "That's funny; I don't think so."
But the homeowner wasn't lying. There really was a massive constrictor snake in their yard, in the Pikesville/Lutherville area.
Sahal hadn't seen anything like it in his nine years with the company - but he's a "big fan of snakes," and had handled plenty of calls for smaller snakes.
Two employees from All Star arrived on the scene to handle the very unusual situation.
Sahal said about the snake:
It was balled up. It had actually just recently fed.
Sahal wasn't sure what the python had eaten. He was just hoping it was some kind of wild animal, not a local pet.
But the fact that the snake "was a little lethargic" definitely helped the team be able to capture it.
One worker distracted the snake from one side, so the other person could grab the python's head, he said.
He originally thought they could put it in a pillowcase, but it was so large they ended up using a 60-gallon cooler.
He noted that pythons aren't venomous, but, as constrictors, they're able to easily kill a human being by wrapping around them.
The python likely started out as someone's exotic pet.
Sahal said he checked with surrounding homes - which are spread very far apart in that area - to make sure it didn't belong to a neighbor.
"I even drove to a few homes - 'Hey, are you missing a python?'" he said.
The python was handed over to Howard County Animal Control.
