Katie and David Arken were headed to The Home Depot just before lunch today to buy some flooring for their Willow Glen home when they spotted a snake curled up in a ball at the bottom of their driveway.
Not just your average garden variety. A big one. It was at least three feet long.
The Arkens called 911.
View more photos of the discovery.
A dispatcher suggested the couple called Santa Clara County Vector Control. A woman there told Katie Arken she would "try" to send someone if she could. Then the 58-year-old registered nurse called San Jose Animal Care and Services and pushed "star" to report an emergency. She got voice mail. And the voice mail was full.
"What do you do when you have a snake in your driveway and animal control isn't answering the phone?" Katie Arken asked, as her 64-year-old husband, a retired IBM employee, snapped photos of the long, brown spotted reptile hanging out in suburbia. He also trapped the creature under a 5-gallon plastic bucket until help could arrive. "I am scared to death of snakes," Arken said. "But my husband loves them.''
But just before 1 p.m., Peter Gotcher, a technician with vector control, arrived at the Arkens' home. He said he recognized the snake. It had gotten loose inside a neighbor's house a few months ago. He scooped it up and delivered it next door.
"If it's a pet or domesticated, it's really animal control's,'' said Noor Tietze, a manager at vector control. "But we rolled on this one anyway.''
The Arkens had no idea that the person renting a room in their neighbor's home owned a snake, and that it has escaped twice.
"It just makes me very concerned how secure that cage is," Katie Arken said.
Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002
Photo caption: The python found in the Arkens' driveway. (David Arken)
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