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Sharon Woman Discovers Python On Her Bathroom Floor

SHARON, Pa. (KDKA) - A Sharon woman got quite the surprise when she went for a potty break in the middle of the night: a python in her bathroom.

The incident happened around 4 a.m. Tuesday at the Riverview Manor Apartments.

Sixty-two-year-old Debbie LaMotte told KDKA at first she thought the snake was a scarf lying on the floor "because it had such a beautiful pattern."

"I came out of my bedroom, and I went into the bathroom, and I saw the snake was laying here in front of the sink," LaMotte says. "I got up and I ran out, I shut the door."

She called 911, and dispatchers told her to try and keep the snake contained crews could get there.

She shut the bathroom door, and used her cane to poke the snake in the head when it would stick its head out underneath the door.

"The snake, I don't think he was scared at all," she said.

When officials got there, they used an "old lady grabber" - a long-handled device that helps people pick up items without bending over - to lift the snake into a bag.

"Three officers came in and I opened the door a crack so they could see because I don't think they believed that I really had a big snake in my bathroom," she said.

The ball python, about three to four feet long, has now been taken to a Crawford County shelter for reptiles.

LaMotte says just last summer her neighbor across the hall said he spotted a snake, but everyone in the building thought he was seeing things.

Since the incident, LaMotte has firmly taped a new sign to her front door: "NO SNAKES PERMITTED ON PREMISES"

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