Snake Bites Sleeping Boy

SOURCE: Daily News

A Bell Gardens boy was bitten by a snake hiding out in the wall heater in his room one night after the snake also bit his brother.

“I was sleeping and all of a sudden I felt something on my hand and it bit me,” Arturo Lopez, 15, told City News Service. “It happened last night too.”

Firefighters responded to the snake call about 12:30 a.m. in the 6600 block of Ajax Avenue, news video cameramen at the scene reported.

They checked out Arturo, determined he had not been bitten by poisonous snake, and called for animal control, On Scene and RMG News reported.

“The same thing happened last night,” said Arturo’s brother, Alejandro Orendaine, 14, who sleeps in the same room. “This time it bit him harder.” The brothers pried open part of the wall heater for an animal control officer to collect the snake early today.

The snake was brown and black with a “patchy” pattern, it was two to three feet long, and it did not appear to be poisonous, said Officer Richard Rodriguez of the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority.

“I had to use tongs and my hands,” Rodriguez said. “It coiled up hard. For only being two-three feet, it was really strong.”

Arturo, Alejandro and the rest of their family moved into the apartment about two months ago, the boys said.

Somebody who lived there before them had a pet snake and it got loose, Rodriguez said. The snake apparently had been living in the wall and inside the heater since then, Rodriguez said.

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MY TAKE: Kids shouldn’t have to worry about things like snakes in their wall heaters. They should be focusing on what boys are focusing on these days: how to download PS 3 games, what color HPS bulbs to put in their rooms to go with their cool posters and cute things like baby girl birth announcements and family outings. PS 3 downloads and birth announcements aside, this was not joke: the previous owners should have had the entire place checked out before renting to new tenants. To often landlords are focusing on a quick rent, putting in the standard CFL fixtures, slapping paint on the walls and throwing down some cheap carpeting, all the while overlooking safety concerns and issues that could impact the health and well being of renters to come.

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