Snake-Infested Home Like 'Living in a Horror Movie'

Home was most likely built on a winter snake sanctuary, says biologist
By Sarah Whitmire,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 15, 2011 11:19 AM CDT
Snake-Infested Home Like 'Living in a Horror Movie'
In this photo taken June 9, 2011, the residence near Rexburg, Idaho, now known locally as "The Snake House," is shown.   (Jessie L. Bonner)

Ben and Amber Sessions thought they’d scored a major bargain when they found a five-bedroom house in the rural Idaho countryside for less than $180,000. But the dream house they purchased in 2009 turned out to be infested with hundreds upon hundreds of garter snakes, reports the AP. Throngs of snakes crawled beneath the home's siding. At night, the young couple said they would lie awake and listen to slithering inside the walls. "It was like living in one of those horror movies," said Ben Sessions, 31, who says he killed 42 snakes in one day before he decided he couldn't do it anymore.

He and his wife had little recourse, though, when they decided to flee. They had signed a document that noted the snake infestation, but say they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind. Several months ago, the house, now owned by JPMorgan Chase, briefly went back on the market. Then, Discovery Channel's Animal Planet featured the couple's story in its Infested series. The listing was removed and the home has stayed off the market while Chase decides what to do with it. (More strange stuff stories.)

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