A family in Freehold, New Jersey, discovered an 8-foot-long Burmese python hiding beneath their shed floor and contacted the Monmouth County SPCA. Animal control officers, with help from a local contractor who removed the shed boards, carefully extracted the snake, which had a conspicuous bulge in its midsection.
At the shelter, an X-ray showed what the bulge was: a possum the python had swallowed whole. The snake was cleaned and placed in a secure tank, and the SPCA worked with a reptile rescue in Red Bank to arrange safe placement with a properly permitted expert.
Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and do not occur naturally in the US Northeast, but they can legally be kept in New Jersey with a permit — suggesting this was an escaped or released pet. If no permitted owner comes forward, the snake will be rehomed with someone qualified to care for it.
The story closed with a reminder that exotic pets should never be released into the wild. A shed floor in New Jersey is no place for a Southeast Asian python — and the X-ray was the proof of just how far from home it had wandered.