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There's a 20-Foot Snake in a New Jersey Lake

Boa constrictor spotted a dozen times
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 13, 2014 10:31 AM CDT
There's a 20-Foot Snake in a New Jersey Lake
A boa constrictor like this one has been spotted in a New Jersey lake.   (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Move over, Nessie: There's a deadly monster in New Jersey's biggest lake, and there's no sign that this one's a hoax. A boa constrictor between 15 and 20 feet long has been spotted about a dozen times in Lake Hopatcong, CBS New York reports. One couple has seen it swimming and slithering into their boathouse. "What we’re afraid of is the animals, small dogs, cats, raccoons—and I would advise people not to put their baby in the lake," says an animal control official. "We have to catch it."

He has some more advice for locals and visitors: "You don’t want to touch it. You don’t want to go towards it. You don’t want to threaten it. It’s not going to come at a person unless it’s threatened, cornered, caught. Then, it will squeeze you to death," he notes. “This big a snake would be aggressive." The official thinks the snake was a pet let loose when it got too big. State police are on the case, NJ.com reports. (Of course, Nessie could be real, too.)

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