A Medford man found a slithery surprise in his garage Thursday morning.
Bill Kane says he was cleaning his car when he came upon a 6-foot-long black racer snake. Experts say it's an aggressive but non-venomous snake native to Long Island that primarily feeds on mice.
"I was born in Brooklyn. Rats, mice, rodents, roaches – that doesn't bother me," says Kane. "Snakes? No thank you."
He called the Suffolk SPCA, and Detective Domenic Mozzone was able to capture the snake and release it in the woods where it quickly slithered up a tree.
"It got up about 20 feet and then it fell into the branches and then it was crawling along the fence then we lost sight of it. It was gone," says Mozzone.
About an hour later, the snake returned to the front of Kane's garage, prompting Mozzone to return to the property.
"The second time…I took him all the way down to the end of the property line and let him go and he went into the woods there," he says.
The SPCA typically releases non-venomous snakes into the wild even though experts say a snake this size could harm small pets. It urges anyone who comes across a large snake to contact the SPCA at 631-382-7722.
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