If You Don't Like Snakes...

Stay away from Tinseltown on 290.

Actually, it's closed down for now, so it doesn't matter.

Closed movie theater turns up the heat in hunt for 8-foot snake
By RHEA DAVIS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

A northwest Houston movie house has temporarily closed its doors after a maintenance worker reported seeing an 8-foot snake slithering along the wall of a theater auditorium, the company said Wednesday.


A janitor was cleaning the Tinseltown movie theater on the Northwest Freeway about 2 a.m. Sept. 22 when he spotted a snake about as thick as a man's arm between the first row of seats and the screen, said Terrell Falk, vice president of marketing and communications for Cinemark USA Inc.

"As soon as he saw it, he left," she said.

"I think everyone who was working left."

Based on the yellow color and skin pattern reported by the janitor, it could be a Burmese python, said a snake catcher hired by the theater company.

The theater opened for its afternoon screenings on schedule, about 10 hours after the sighting.

But as soon as the corporate office heard about the incident, the local management halted all movies in progress, gave customers refunds or rain checks and cleared out the building, said Falk.

"We don't know what it is, or if it is still there," she said, "but just to be cautious, we thought we should close the building."

Seven days and three snake experts later, it remained unclear whether there had been a snake in the theater and, if so, whether it found its way out.

"We have looked throughout the theater and we haven't found a snake yet," said Ramon Cardenas, owner of Critter Control of Houston, a company that specializes in wildlife control.


Setting the trap
Cardenas said he set up temperature-controlled traps in the individual theaters in hopes of catching the snake.

Falk said the company thinks the employee is telling the truth and said other experts have reported signs that a snake is living in the building.

City animal control officers searched the theater Wednesday morning and found no trace of the snake, said Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.

She said she has heard of snakes popping up in strange places, but never in a commercial building.

Still, she wasn't willing to rule out the possibility.

"Just because we didn't see one doesn't mean it's not there," she said.

Texas Snakes and More, a Houston-based company that removes snakes and shows homeowners how to keep their abodes snake-free, also has been put on the case.

The company's owner set up children's plastic booster seats and small glue traps Wednesday around the edges of the building, office manager Michelle Pustejovsky said.

Evidence that the booster seats or glue traps have moved, she explained, would indicate a snake is in the building.

The company "hopes to follow the traps like Hansel and Gretel to find out where the snake is hiding," Pustejovsky said.

She said the traps were set up around the wall because snakes like to travel along the edges of objects.

Because snakes prefer warm temperatures and are sensitive to vibrations, Pustejovsky said, the heat in the building has been turned up and no one will be allowed inside for 24 hours.


Businesses feel strain
If the traps show no movement today, she said, officials must consider three possibilities.

Either the reported sighting was a joke, the snake found its way out of the building or it is hiding in a remote location and probably won't come out again.

Pustejovsky said it is unlikely that a boa constrictor or python would have wandered into the theater on its own. She said if one is found in the theater, it probably was brought in by someone or let loose near the building.

Nearby businesses hope the mystery is solved soon.

Julie Guerrero, an associate manager at an adjacent Fuddruckers restaurant, reported a dramatic drop in customers since the theater shut down.

Guerrero said she thought it strange that the snake sighting happened the same week the movie Anacondas opened.

But she said she didn't know if the sighting was real or a prank.

"It would be a shame if all the businesses had to suffer for nothing," she said.

No business likely will suffer as much as the company that owns the theater.

Falk wouldn't say how much the theater is losing each day it is closed, emphasizing that the safety of its employees and customers is the priority.

"Yeah, sure, we're losing some money," she said.

"But hopefully people will come back to the theater after this is taken care of."