STUART, Fla. — A woman in Stuart got the shock of her life after an unexpected visitor showed up at her door Thursday.
Patty Kothe was walking her dog in her neighborhood when she received a phone call from her neighbor, WPBF-TV explains.
“My neighbor called me and told me, ‘Do not open your front door,’” Kothe told WPBF. “He goes, ‘There is a 6-foot rattlesnake outside your front door.’ And I said OK, figuring I’ll never leave my front door again.”
Not skipping a beat, the Martin County Sheriff's Office Animal Control was called out to remove the snake.
“When we arrived, sure enough, it was just basking right there on her welcome mat,” Animal Control Officer Tabitha Queen told the TV station.
Video recorded at the house shows two workers using tongs to pick up the scaly visitor and try to place it in a bucket. After failing once to get the squirming reptile, the snake was finally enclosed with a sealed tight lid.
“He did not go happily,” Kothe said to WPBF. “He didn’t go happily at all.”
According to the sheriff's office, the snake was released into a more "snake-friendly" area, CBS 12 reports.
So are rattlesnakes visitors Floridians should be looking out for? Timber rattlesnakes, eastern diamondback and pigmy are the three types found throughout the Sunshine State.
Timber rattlesnakes are only found in northern Florida while the other two are found throughout the whole state, UF/IFAS Extension explains.
Interactions between snakes and people are inevitable, it seems, but here is something to keep in mind if you come face to face with one: leave it alone!
"Attempting to harras, handle, or kill a venomous snake greatly increases your chances of being bitten, so it is critical that you adopt a 'leave it be' attitude toward all snakes," state leaders say.