“I closed the lid and started screaming,” Kamencic said. “I was just totally creeped out at the thought of, you know, a snake in the house, let alone, you know, how it got in there. I didn’t even have time to process it.”
Evanston Police Department Officer Pedro Carrasco and Animal Control Warden Jason Pound came to Kamencic’s home.
“Once I spoke with the homeowner, we went down in the basement and there it was,” Carrasco said. “Snake poking its head out of the tumbler in the washing machine.”
Pound said that he could tell the snake had been through a washing cycle because it smelled like Downy fabric softener.
Credit: Chicago Exotics via AP
Credit: Chicago Exotics via AP
The snake was taken to Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital, where, despite going through a wash cycle, it was OK.
"Surprisingly, the snake looks in pretty good shape," veterinarian Dr. Melissa Giese, who examined the snake, told WBBM. "She's really feisty."
It turns out that Kamencic’s neighbor, a 12-year-old boy, just got the snake a week or so ago, and she escaped.
Chicago Exotics office manager Lamor Gatenio said the boy and his family had been looking for the pet, named Penelope, for three days. Penelope was able to get across a townhouse wall and into Kamencic’s laundry room.
Penelope and her owner have since been reunited.
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