Police said a snake was spotted slithering its way through the Upper West Side on Wednesday morning.
A concerned citizen called 911 around 8 a.m. to report that the 5-foot-long snake was crawling up an exterior gate and trying to enter a basement apartment on West 87th Street, NYPD officials said.
The NYPD said its emergency service unit secured the reptile and put it in the hands of the ASPCA animal welfare organization, which said the snake had been placed with a foster guardian outside of the city, since they’re illegal in the Big Apple.
Police said they were still trying to determine where the snake came from.
Police proudly secure the snake in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Alex Noschese, a resident of the reptile's temporary home on West 87th Street, said he watched as police wheeled a stretcher out of the building.
“I thought someone had been bitten by the snake,” he told Gothamist.
In reality, one of the responding police officers fell down the stairs during the operation and was injured, according to Noschese.
PIX11 reported that the snake had snuck into a kitchen sink on Wednesday morning. But the resident who first spotted the snake, and declined to be named, said the visitor never made its way inside the apartment.
“It was incredibly shocking,” he said.
