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Snakes Alive! Missing pythons on the loose in neighbourhood

Sep 15, 2016 | 5:45 AM

HEPHZIBAH, Ga. — In a real life version of the children’s reader “Snakes Alive!”, state wildlife officers are searching for 14 pythons in an east Georgia subdivision after a woman reported that someone let the pet snakes loose.

Jacqueline Heim told authorities the snakes were in secure cages. She suspects someone set them free deliberately this week.

Heim tells WRDW-TV (http://bit.ly/2d1S4NI ) the ball pythons are not harmful. Ball pythons, sometimes known as royal pythons, are so named because their key defence against predators is to roll up in a ball.

Priscilla Crisler of Augusta Animal Services says the snakes “typically are very docile.”