It was Monday night at The Porter Brewers Hill in Canton, and the snake had gotten loose.

Nobody has said for sure how the snake got into the fourth-floor hallway, or even where it went. But residents of the apartment building saw the snake, tried to contain it, and in at least one case, played with it.

Jacob Meza, a resident, said he was on his way to the gym when someone in the hallway told him there was a snake in the building. Meza, not sure what was going on, said he blew it off.

After the workout, curiosity got the best of him, Meza said. When he got back from the gym, he went to the fourth floor “and, lo and behold, there is a damn python in the middle of the hallway, just coiled up by this person’s door.”

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The snake seemed pretty small and young, Meza said, and maybe even like it was in distress. Meza estimated that the snake, whose name is unknown, was about 2 feet long.

But the situation quickly became fraught while he was in the hallway with the scaly critter — there was one resident around the corner, afraid of snakes, and another, who lived in the apartment right behind where the snake was coiled, who was trying to walk his small dog.

Meza tried making phone calls to animal control, the building’s maintenance number, anyone he could think of — but nobody picked up, he said.

Requests for comment to the apartment complex and its corporate owner went unanswered.

Under this box is a ball python that was on the loose in a Canton apartment. Someone moved the box. (Courtesy photo/Jacob Meza)

So, for the safety of the small dog and every resident of the apartment, Meza ran to his apartment and cut the flaps off a delivery box to make an “entrapment device” to hide the snake under.

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“I just did my best Steve Irwin impression and used all my years of watching ‘Animal Planet’ and wrangled it,” Meza said. “I didn’t want to touch it. But I got as close as I could and trapped it.”

He wrote a time-stamped warning that said, “There is a loose ball python under this box (yes, seriously) PLEASE Do NOT MOVE this BOX.”

But humans are a curious bunch. And that’s how Chelsea Johnson, another building resident, found herself playing with the python, which is native to Central and West Africa and isn’t venomous.

Johnson said she had snakes years ago, but not currently. The snake was super friendly, Johnson said, though definitely seemed scared.

“Last I heard the owner came and got it,” Johnson said in a social media message. “No idea who they are or how on earth they lost a whole snake.”

And for those still curious: Kevin Barrett, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Maryland Zoo, when shown a photo of the snake, confirmed that it is a ball python.

Cody Boteler

cody.boteler@thebaltimorebanner.com

Cody Boteler

Cody Boteler is a reporter on The Banner’s Express Desk, reporting on breaking news, trending stories and interesting things in and around Baltimore. His work has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, USA TODAY, Baltimore magazine and others.

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