Sleeping Napa Teen Woken Up By Boa Constrictor's Bite
NAPA (KPIX 5) -- A Napa teen ended up in the hospital after a boa constrictor slithered into her room and bit her Monday morning.
Emelyn Ojeda was barely awake when the incident occurred. "I was about to reach for my alarm clock, but once I reached for it something bit me," Ojeda told KPIX 5. "At first, my parents and my brother thought it was a rat or a lizard."
The bite was bad enough to send her to the hospital with a sore hand and a panic attack. But it was nothing compared to the panic she was about to experience.
"My dad called me and he said 'I know what bit you,'" Ojeda recalled.
The teen had crossed paths with a cold-blooded killer: a three-foot long boa constrictor. Somehow the reptile slithered into the Ojeda's apartment on the 300 block of Collier Boulevard and made itself at home. It was a specimen so large, Ojeda said that Napa County Animal Control was shocked.
"When they saw it, they were like 'Oh crap it's big,' so they went and got a cage for it," Ojeda said.
With the boa constrictor held at the Napa County Animal Shelter, Ojeda said she can sleep just fine.
"I'm probably more scared of spiders than snakes," she said.
The shelter would not let KPIX 5 see the boa constrictor, saying they want to protect the snake's identity. They hope the snake's owner can describe and claim the reptile.
Shelter officials said the snake is healthy and is being cared for by a reptile rescuer. They think the boa constrictor is an escaped pet.
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