12-foot python on loose for weeks caught by Newberry County family

NEWBERRY COUNTY, SC (WOLO) — What would you do if you came across a 12-foot yellow python? Most people would run the other way!

But that wasn’t the case for a few men in Newberry County who decided to help capture a massive snake that’s been causing quite a stir.

First spotted several weeks ago near the Mid-Carolinas campus, an albino reticulated python is an anything but a common sight here in South Carolina.

“It’s native to Southeast Asia, definitely not native to here. So it could not survive our winters. They need our hot humid climate, like our summers are perfect for those types of snakes but they would not be able to survive our winters,” says Sean Foley, Curator of Herpetology at Riverbanks Zoo & Garden.

Both Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster and Sean believe the snake was most likely someone’s pet — and either escaped from its cage, or was released on purpose.

“A lot of people buy these snakes when they’re two or three feet long, and you’ve got a cage that’s four feet long and that’s fine for a couple of years, but eventually that snake’s gonna get 15 plus feet long, and you need to make sure you can accommodate what that snake needs for its entire life — and that’s a difficult situation. Because you don’t want to find out you can’t take care of it and release that snake. It’s terrible for the environment and it’s terrible for that snake because it’s gonna die and it’s not gonna be able to survive,” he says.

ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams messaged with animal lover Warren Gallman, seen wrangling the snake along with his son Jordan and his nephew Jayden Atchison, as well as Evan Turner, another Prosperity community member who lives nearby.

Warren says a local family posted on social media that they spotted the snake, just two miles from his home.

He says his son (who owns a ball python) and his nephew have been snake lovers since they were five-years-old — and they all vowed to “go get it.”

After a 15-minute search, Warren says Evan spotted the python and then Warren grabbed the snake’s head, ending up with a few scratches after the snake pulled him into the bushes.

Sean says the python is actually small compared to the zoo’s anaconda, saying, “It’s about 130-140 pound snake, way bigger than the one in the video.”

The good news? Sean says the yellow python is not venomous and won’t mess with you unless you mess with it.

The bad news? A bite could still do plenty of damage to you — “You might even get some sutures from a really large bite,” says Sean.

And would easily mistake your small pet for dinner.

“So yes you definitely want to keep your small pets away from a large snake like that,” he says.

While Sean says the zoo is unable to accommodate the python, Warren says the snake will be safe with him until they find it an appropriate habitat.