Houma police caught a 12-and-a-half foot reticulated python over the weekend after a man discovered it curled up in a flowerpot in his backyard.
“One of our officers... Don Aubrey… I guess he’s, uh, not too afraid of snakes,” said Chief Travis Theriot. “He was able to get in there and safely capture the snake. It was later turned over to Wildlife and Fisheries.”
The python was captured using a single garden implement.
“Pretty much... used a shovel to just hold the head down and distract it," the chief explained.
The cop then grabbed it behind the head, put it in a sack and haul it took it away.
The snake is believed to be a former pet released into the wild, which Theriot cautions against.
"They are not indigenous to this area, so, uh, this isn’t something that we want in the area at all."
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee, reticulated pythons are also an invasive species in Florida with a habit of eating any wildlife they come in contact with.
The python found in Houma didn’t harm any humans, but it did eat two pet geese.
