Durban — Snake handler Jason Arnold said he felt a bit like Keanu Reeves in the movie “Speed” when rescuing a snake in a lift shaft recently.
Arnold captioned the video of the rescue - I felt a bit like Keanu Reeves in the movie “Speed” doing this rescue...
Arnold said that he was called out to the uMhlanga Rocks area for a spotted bush snake at a business premises.
He said it was not something he would normally film because bush snakes were common and it is not something he regarded as fun enough or exciting enough to film and let people watch.
“But what’s making this call-out pretty interesting is not the snake but the situation that the snake is in and the place that I have to go to get to the snake which is pretty cool,” Arnold said.
“If you guys watch my videos, you’ll know that snakes turn up in the most weird of areas. I mean they can end up literally anywhere if you can imagine a snake pitching up somewhere the snake can literally get there.
“And what we have on this particular occasion is a spotted bush snake inside a lift shaft,” Arnold said.
He said that lift technicians had come through to fix something or do a service on the lift or whatever it is that they were doing when they came across a bush snake inside the lift shaft.
“So I have caught snakes in the strangest, strangest of places but I have never ever had to go into a lift shaft to get a snake so this is going to be a first for me,” Arnold said.
“Not sure at which level the snake is in the shaft. So I don’t know how I’m going to gain access. Obviously, the technicians are there and they’re going to be able to get me there. Whether I’m going to have to be climbing ladders or taking a ride on top of the lift I don’t know but it should be fun.”
When Arnold arrived at the premises, a man, believed to be one of the technicians said that most of the time they have found snakes in the lift shaft but those were already dead.
Arnold was pointed to where the snake was and was provided with a stepladder so he can make his way down the lift shaft.
Once down the shaft, Arnold said that his hand was too fat to fit in where the snake was - a hole in the wall with a thick pipe in it.
Sticking his fingers in the wall, as far as it could go, Arnold said he was hoping the snake would bite his finger and latch on to it and then he can pull the snake out with his finger.
One of the technicians went out in search for a wire Arnold could use to try and get the snake out.
Arnold said it was a harmless bush snake.
“I’ve caught a snake in the lift, in the actual lift but never in the shaft,” Arnold said when asked by one of the technicians if he had ever been in a lift shaft before.
After a few minutes, Arnold was armed with a piece of wire.
“I’m just going to irritate him with this hand, with the wire, and when he comes out of here which he should come in quite a hurry. I’ll catch him with the same hand,” Arnold said.
“I can feel him.”
He continued to try and irritate the snake until eventually, it came out.
“Hey dude,” Arnold said to the snake.
He said the snake probably will not bite him but if it does, it is a harmless snake, therefore he was not worried about that.
Arnold said he wondered how long the snake was in the shaft because it would not find water.
Full video below:
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