Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Officer Austin Fogarty turned an ordinary service call into what his department described as a first-of-its-kind arrest when he found a black snake inside a home in Montgomery Village.
Here's what to know
Montgomery Community Media reported that the older resident had called Animal Services about the 2-foot reptile.
After hearing about the report, Fogarty went to the location because he was available and did not want the woman to be left waiting if she might be in danger.
Montgomery Community Media published body camera footage in which, as Fogarty grabs the snake and removes it from the home, the woman can be heard saying, "Oh, God! You got 'em."
"Yeah, I got 'em. It's fine," Fogarty replies while holding the snake in his hand.
To Degan Bartles, a public information officer with the Montgomery County Police Department, the catch looked almost routine. "When I watched the video for the first time, I thought he must have grown up grabbing snakes or something because he grabbed it in an expert way," Bartles told Montgomery Community Media.
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More background
It turned out that it was Fogarty's first time, according to Montgomery Community Media.
This kind of human-wildlife overlap can be shaped in part by development and be created when neighborhoods share space with animal habitats. Close contact between people and wildlife is often linked to human activity that changes or compresses natural areas.
Police said Fogarty and the woman were unharmed.
What's being done?
"It really was an officer going above and beyond," Bartles said, per Montgomery Community Media. "He had an opportunity to help an old woman out. She had a snake in her bedroom."
Fogarty removed the animal, and the department shared the body camera video.
"Like a pro, wrangled the snake, grabbed it, and removed it from the premises," Bartles said.
As for what happened to the animal, Bartles added: "Well, that's for Mother Nature to figure out. But it is still alive."
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