UPS Driver Meets With Python

It looked like a regular package, but for a New Jersey United Parcel Service driver, it wasn't your typical delivery.

A 7-foot-long python shipped in a box escaped on a UPS truck. The snake is now locked up in a Cumberland County zoo.

UPS said it has a no-animals policy with rare exceptions, but this one slithered through the cracks.

When reptile collector Chris Altizer, of Bridgeton, N.J., ordered a new snake on the Internet, he said he didn't expect the guy in New Mexico to send it by UPS.

"I looked down at the box and there was a big hole in the box, and (the driver) is, like, running out to get back to his truck. So I'm, like, 'Wait, wait, wait.' I said, 'You might want to check your truck.' I told him what was in the box. I said, 'There was a 7-foot snake in this box," Altizer said.

The driver discovered the snake loose in his truck. He called animal control and they searched until they cornered the reptile. At 7 feet, the python was only a child. It will eventually grow to 20 feet or longer. Olivia Landis of the Cohanzick Zoo said that, even at this size, the python has potential to be dangerous.

"They will view children, small animals and pets as prey. At that point they will constrict around them," Landis said.

The UPS driver's supervisor said he was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Altizer is a collector and has a license for the python he currently owns. He told NBC 10 News that he isn't worried about having the large reptiles around his son.

"I can do a lot of things to this girl and she won't bite," Altizer said.

But Altizer said he is biting mad at the man who sent his snake by UPS and he said he called him to complain.

"Well, he was like, 'Yeah, I don't know what to say, man.' Well, I (said I) told you to ship him properly.' And he was, like, 'I know, I have shipped over snakes like this before,'" Altizer said.

Authorities said that no laws were broken in the shipment. Altizer needs to get a license and should be able to recover his snake sometime in the near future.

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