by Diana Crandall
Residents in university-owned apartments had a slippery surprise awaiting them on Monday night. After returning to her apartment to complete homework, junior Stephanie Beachy spotted a coiled mass on her living room floor.
“I turned the light off, turned around, and saw it on the ground. I thought it was a prank, but then I saw that the tail was moving,” Beachy said. She alerted other members of the apartment before calling public safety.
“I called and said, ‘As weird as this sounds, there’s a snake in my apartment.’”
After the snake was captured and contained, the Department of Public Safety called over an expert from Battelle Hall. Angie Stidham, the Biology Department Lab Manager, instantly identified the reptile as a python.
“It’s a juvenile ball python, which aren’t native to the area,” Stidham said. “People do keep them as pets.”
Whose pet, exactly, is unknown. Senior Abby Meneses, who lived in the affected apartment last school year, said that rumors of a loose pet python ran rampant throughout the complex.
“I know that people in apartments near us had pets, and it was rumored that one of their snakes got loose.”
“It makes you wonder if it’s the same python that just lived there for a year, or if it had babies? Does it have siblings?” Meneses said.
Although the discovery is unsettling, students have nothing to worry about from the snake in question. “The python is in the care of the Biology Department for now,” Stidham confirmed.
