Police officers often have to deal with suspects who are resisting arrest, but one cop in St. Petersburg, Florida, ended up having a wrestling match with an uncooperative snake caught on video in a park.
Officer Paul Grata wrangled a six-foot python at Dell Holmes Park in the city on Florida’s western coast, Fox13News.com reported. The park is situated on the northwest coast of Lake Maggiore.
Grata yanked the snake from some bushes by its tail, then used a trapping poll and a trash can to contain the limbless suspect, receiving assistance from a Parks and Rec employee, St. Petersburg police said in a Facebook post.
An unidentified Florida Fish and Wildlife officer identified the snake’s species as a ball python. which is considered an invasive species. The snake was sent to a rehabilitation facility in Hillsborough County.
Florida has been fighting a battle against pythons, with almost 2,000 pythons being removed from the Florida Everglades in the first eight months of 2020, the CBS affiliate in Miami reported. Over 6,700 snakes have been removed from the Everglades since a removal program started in 2017. (RELATED: Wild Video Shows Record-Setting 18-Foot, 9-Inch Python Caught In Florida)
Pythons were let loose into the wild when unwanted pet snakes were dumped, and a single female can carry as many as 100 eggs. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there are tens of thousands of pythons in the Everglades alone.