The Ohio driver of a garbage truck discovered a new "friend" while out on the job: A 6-foot Burmese python snake was found hanging out on the vehicle's roof after the garbage man emptied a trash bin from a Cincinnati fast-food restaurant.
Hamilton County, Ohio, deputies arrived on-scene, to find the snake already on the ground -- with its tail wrapped around a broom belonging to the driver. A deputy lifted the snake into a cardboard box using the broom with what appears to be an easygoing former pet.
Burmese pythons are not uncommon as pets and considered docile compared to other large snakes. The reptiles are popular and known to be even easier to handle and better pets yet, when handled during their younger years. As Burmese pythons grow, they continuously require a larger and stronger enclosure including options like custom built wood and Plexiglas cages for the snakes -- or even a modified closet or room to house the pet. Burmese pythons are extremely strong and can be excellent escape artists as pets.
For python owners that don't understand the needs of caring for a large snake, well-meaning owners have been known to try to "release" the animals into the wild -- which, in turn, can cause an environmental issue. Released Burmese pythons have become a problem in certain areas like the Florida Everglades because the animals have continued breeding after being released in the area.
But even when pet owners don't plan to intentionally "release" pythons, the snakes are known to accidentally free themselves or get loose from a home by opening cages through sheer strength and curiosity -- or when on the search for food, like rodents. Contrary to popular belief, even large snakes do not easily attack or require food often -- eating rats or rodents only about a couple of times per month.
It's likely the Ohio snake had just located itself a rat or rodent meal before its accidental trash dump that threw the animal on the garbage truck's roof. Rats frequent garbage bins. Snakes follow the food source. The sheriff's department says the newfound python seemed sluggish at first -- common for snakes after they've just eaten -- but that the animal revived once in the box that animal welfare workers used for transport. The sheriff's office says it doesn't know how the python got to the trash bin area and seems to have skipped the obvious: The python was likely dumpster-diving in a search for snacks.