A police officer made a venomous discovery during a car search, Colorado officials said.
Screengrab from @Wheatridgepolice on X.
Drug paraphernalia in “plain sight” led a police officer to a venomous discovery while conducting a car search, Colorado officials said.
While checking the car on May 26, the officer found a plastic bin, body camera footage from the Wheat Ridge Police Department posted on X, formerly Twitter, shows.
That’s when he found a live rattlesnake.
“Does he have any other thing that might bite me?” the officer can be heard saying in the video.
“Does he have any other thing that might bite me?”
While checking park trailheads Sunday at 11:30 p.m., one of our officers saw a car with drug paraphernalia in plain sight. Around the same time, the car’s owner was dropped off to the location by an Uber. pic.twitter.com/6mduqCF1J5
The car’s owner had lent the vehicle to a friend and was taking an Uber back to the location, officials said.
Officials said on X there will be no charges against the vehicle owner, but they’re trying to contact the friend because they “have a lot of questions.”
Wheat Ridge is about a 6-mile drive northwest of Denver.
Paloma Chavez is a reporter covering real-time news on the West Coast. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Southern California.
This is what Bryce Anderson faced when he responded at midnight to a home in Buckeye, Arizona. It was a 3-foot Mojave rattlesnake.
Rattlesnake Solutions photo
If there’s anything worse than finding a rattlesnake at midnight, it’s watching it slide into a hole in a wall at your home.
It happened just that way outside a home in Buckeye, Arizona, and snake catcher Bryce Anderson of Rattlesnake Solutions was put in the awkward position of tugging at the rattlesnake’s tail.
The snake refused to budge, however.
“This one was a doozy, but a fun one for sure!” Anderson said in a Facebook post.
“By the time I had arrived, it had its tail sticking out of the wall (where) it was planning to spend the night. (It) eventually did end up with (its) whole body in the wall. … At this point in the call, my only hope was to upset the snake,” Anderson told McClatchy News in an email.
So, how do you upset a venomous snake without hurting it?
Anderson improvised, resorting to a good old-fashioned — and very annoying — spray with a water hose.
“Admittedly I wasn’t certain this would work. While a snake might appreciate a drink from a hose on a hot day, too much water being sprayed in one direction for a constant period of time can become rather bothersome, often forcing snakes out from where they’re hiding,” he said.
So Anderson stood there with the hose pointed at the hole. Ten minutes passed, then 20 minutes, then 30 minutes.
“Finally, after what seemed like ages, our culprit got sick of being sprayed with water and made a dash for it, giving me an opportunity to bucket (it) before (it) could find (its) way into any more predicaments,“ Anderson said.
The snake was identified as a 3-foot Mohave rattlesnake, a species that can reach 4 feet in length, experts say. Their venom is ”potent in neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and hemotoxins that attack the blood,” the National Park Service reports.
The wall where it hid was a “perfect” rattlesnake shelter, Anderson said. What’s not clear is whether the snake had been living there for months or just discovered the hole that night.
Anderson hauled away the snake and released it unharmed into the wild, standard procedure for Arizona-based Rattlesnake Solutions.
Buckeye is about a 40-mile drive southwest from Phoenix.
This story was originally published May 23, 2024, 6:53 AM.
Mark Price is a National Reporter for McClatchy News. He joined the network of newspapers in 1991 at The Charlotte Observer, covering beats including schools, crime, immigration, LGBTQ issues, homelessness and nonprofits. He graduated from the University of Memphis with majors in journalism and art history, and a minor in geology.
Would you have guessed a rattlesnake was under this porch mat in Arizona? Video shows it was asleep when found.
Rattlesnake Solutions photo
A rattlesnake with a sense of humor — or irony — was found expertly hidden under the welcome mat of a home in Phoenix, Arizona, video shows.
Specifics of the encounter have not been revealed, but the snake was apparently heard before it was seen, according to the snake-catching service Rattlesnake Solutions.
“A homeowner got a shock when the welcome mat started rattling at her!” the company wrote in a Feb. 14 Facebook post.
Snake catcher Bryce Anderson was sent to investigate, and he peeled back the rug to reveal a western diamondback.
The snake, coiled tightly, appeared to be napping. However, it instantly sprang to life and began nervously twitching when faced with Anderson’s intrusive tongs.
It’s difficult to tell from the video if the snake bit the tongs or just tongued them. Either way, Anderson had the snake in a protective bucket within seconds.
The rattlesnake was then taken to a wilderness area and released. A size estimate was not provided, but the venomous reptiles average three to five feet in length, experts say.
Rattlesnake Solutions shared the video on Facebook and YouTube, prompting a mix of fascination and horror from commenters.
Some were impressed the lump under the rug was so easily missed. Others wondered what would have happened if a passerby felt their foot sink into something alive.
“Reach under there for the spare key,” AceParks wrote on YouTube.
“Now that is one heck of a burglar alarm,” Richard Penhallow said on Facebook.
“I always thought my cat was the only creature to hide under a rug,” Jared Meketuk wrote on Facebook.
Mark Price is a National Reporter for McClatchy News. He joined the network of newspapers in 1991 at The Charlotte Observer, covering beats including schools, crime, immigration, LGBTQ issues, homelessness and nonprofits. He graduated from the University of Memphis with majors in journalism and art history, and a minor in geology.
Would you have guessed a rattlesnake was under this porch mat in Arizona? Video shows it was asleep when found.
Rattlesnake Solutions photo
A rattlesnake with a sense of humor — or irony — was found expertly hidden under the welcome mat of a home in Phoenix, Arizona, video shows.
Specifics of the encounter have not been revealed, but the snake was apparently heard before it was seen, according to the snake-catching service Rattlesnake Solutions.
“A homeowner got a shock when the welcome mat started rattling at her!” the company wrote in a Feb. 14 Facebook post.
Snake catcher Bryce Anderson was sent to investigate, and he peeled back the rug to reveal a western diamondback.
The snake, coiled tightly, appeared to be napping. However, it instantly sprang to life and began nervously twitching when faced with Anderson’s intrusive tongs.
It’s difficult to tell from the video if the snake bit the tongs or just tongued them. Either way, Anderson had the snake in a protective bucket within seconds.
The rattlesnake was then taken to a wilderness area and released. A size estimate was not provided, but the venomous reptiles average three to five feet in length, experts say.
Rattlesnake Solutions shared the video on Facebook and YouTube, prompting a mix of fascination and horror from commenters.
Some were impressed the lump under the rug was so easily missed. Others wondered what would have happened if a passerby felt their foot sink into something alive.
“Reach under there for the spare key,” AceParks wrote on YouTube.
“Now that is one heck of a burglar alarm,” Richard Penhallow said on Facebook.
“I always thought my cat was the only creature to hide under a rug,” Jared Meketuk wrote on Facebook.
Mark Price is a National Reporter for McClatchy News. He joined the network of newspapers in 1991 at The Charlotte Observer, covering beats including schools, crime, immigration, LGBTQ issues, homelessness and nonprofits. He graduated from the University of Memphis with majors in journalism and art history, and a minor in geology.
