Posted on 03/25/2008 11:30:02 AM PDT by JZelle
An Arlington man was in stable condition yesterday in Inova Fairfax Hospital after reaching into his luggage and being bitten by a snake.
Officials have not determined how the reptile — preliminarily identified as a juvenile canebrake rattlesnake — got into the luggage.
The man, identified by authorities only as a coach at Yorktown High School, told fire and rescue personnel that he felt a sharp pain upon reaching into his luggage after returning from a team trip to South Carolina. Upon seeing the nearly foot-long snake, the man quickly slammed shut the luggage with the snake inside, said Chief Ben Barksdale, spokesman for the Arlington County Fire Department.
Fire and rescue workers took the suitcase outside, opened it and blasted it with a carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher, essentially freezing and killing the snake, Chief Barksdale said.
"The guy who responded had seen it done on TV," he said of the technique, adding that it can be effective for bees or other wild animals.
Chief Barksdale said he had no information that indicates the snake was placed in the luggage deliberately.
Bob Myers, director of the American International Rattlesnake Museum in New Mexico, said a snake could crawl into luggage to seek warmth or shelter, though his first instinct was to suspect some sort of prank.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Score one for a high school prankster!
“Score one for a high school prankster!”
If so, the prankster deserves to be shot to death.
I note that it is not mentioned whether this man flew home or used another method of transit. It would also be nice to know if this snake is indiginious to the region where he was visiting. It may be, I just didn’t notice it mentioned. This has been a rather cold winter. I also wonder if it is normal for this snake to be out slithering around this early in the season considering how cold it has been.
A prank? Putting a venomous snake in someones luggage is a prank?
Oh come on, just make him run a few extra laps.
More details are available in the other version of this story that was previously posted.
A high school coach emptying his luggage after a team trip to South Carolina was bitten by a small rattlesnake that had somehow gotten into his bag, authorities said. Andy Bacas was stable condition at Inova Fairfax Hospital, fire officials said. Bacas, a rowing coach at Yorktown High School in Arlington, told authorities he felt a sharp pain on his hand Monday when he reached into his luggage. He then saw the nearly foot-long snake and slammed the suitcase shut.
LOL!
But if the pranksters really had malicious intent they would have put a handgun, kiddy porn or a pack a cigarettes in the coach's suitcase.
Bacas' son, Peter, said the luggage had been left open on a porch during the trip. Barksdale said he had no information that the snake was deliberately put into the luggage.Thus, it could have been a case of a snake crawling in seeking a warm place to coil and hide -- or it could have been placed in the open luggage as a prank with the expectation that he would see the snake in the luggage before closing it and everyone getting a laugh from his reaction, but then backfiring when the luggage was closed and taken home with the snake inside it.Bob Myers, director of the American International Rattlesnake Museum in New Mexico, said his first thought was that it was a prank, but it's conceivable that a snake would crawl into luggage seeking warmth or shelter.
If the guy had been employed as an actuary, I would say the snake crawled in.
But since he is a high school coach, I say prank.
Hoo boy! I bet that's fun for the whole family.
sick prank if it is and...a very serious one as well. Hope they catch the person but probably never will.
I must admit that I’ve sometimes thought about just such a thing whenever we’ve stayed in motels where the room opens right out onto the parking lot (that is sometimes adjacent also to a woods lot or some sort). It would be real easy for a snake, or other varmint, to run or slither into a room and under the bed when the housekeeper comes in and leaves the door open for a while to air the room while she cleans. I don’t think about it until the middle of the night, and then I can feel the varmints crawling over my feet and running across the blanket.
You just gotta know - life is hard when you’re a Twinkie.
I’m sitting with my feet up in my chair.
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