Baby finds snake in bag of potatoes and you aren't going to believe the rest!!!!

I had to pass this on, now that I'm back from vacation with a freezerful of fish, a nice tan, a cut heel, a busted flip-flop and I'm still looking for my lost shaker of salt. Sorry for the excessive Jimmy Buffett reference, but I was in the Keys for two weeks and I come back to freezing ****ing rain in Georgia !!!!!!! Back to the story: not only did this baby find a snake in a bag of potatoes bagged in Houston, but the little b*stard stuck the snake in its mouth!!!!! God, this is damned crazy.



Boy bites snake

Surprise reception for slithering guest

01/27/04


Staff Report


Houses are full of things that babies try to put in their mouths, causing wary parents to make sure things are out of reach. But few would fear that one of them would be a snake.


Toni Barnard of Semmes said she opened a bag of potatoes from Wal-Mart on Schillinger Road on Saturday night. When her back was turned, a snake apparently slithered out of the bag. Her 11-month old son Trevor grabbed it and did what he does with everything these days: he put it in his mouth and took a bite.

Barnard said she got the snake out of her baby's fist, and someone else cut off the snake's head. She said she was told that the snake was a baby copperhead, but be cause it didn't bite her son, he wasn't injured. The snake species was not positively identified by either Barnard or Wal-Mart.

Based on descriptions in standard references, the snake may to be a young corn snake (Elaphe guattata). These non-poisonous snakes rural areas in the South. Their diet of rodents and reddish splotches on a silvery background has inspired the name "red rat snake.

"Wal-Mart manager Brad Phillips said the store pulled the remaining bags of potatoes that came from the same place. Barnard said the potatoes were MountainKing Potatoes brand, which the label said were packaged in Houston, Texas.

(Register Environment Ed itor Bill Finch contributed to this report.)

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