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There’s always a chance you’ll end up stumbling upon something a previous tenant neglected to take with them when you rent a new place. However, one woman in Rhode Island had an alarming encounter courtesy of a snake that had spent months hiding in her apartment after escaping before she moved in.
There’s only so much you can do when it comes to trying to ensure you’re not going to have to deal with any unexpected surprises when you sign a lease on a new rental. There are plenty of red flags you can keep an eye out for while touring an apartment, but it’s virtually impossible to detect every potential problem before moving in.
You can only hope that the person who rented your place before you replaced them did their due diligence when it came to clearing out their belongings, although it’s not super uncommon to find a forgotten spatula lurking behind the oven or a random utensil under the fridge.
A Rhode Island woman who moved into a new apartment in East Providence last month also came across something in her kitchen that was left behind by the previous tenant, although it was far from one of those usual suspects.
A woman in Rhode Island came across a snake in her apartment that escaped while the person who rented it before was living there
Rhode Island is home to around a dozen different species of snakes, although none of the reptiles that can be found in the wild in The Ocean State are venomous.
That is also the case with the ball pythons that are not native to the state but can be kept as pets, which was the case with one that was in the care of someone who had resided in an apartment on Mauran Avenue in East Providence before moving out toward the start of October.
According to WPRI, they vacated the dwelling that was subsequently rented by Nicole Jones, who went to grab a snack from her fridge in the middle of the night last week when she spotted a snake on the floor next to the appliance.
Jones called the East Providence Police Department, who dispatched animal control officers who determined the snake—which appears to be an albino ball python—was not venomous or native to the region.
She asked if she could take care of it after learning they planned to rehome it in a reptile shop, and she found herself growing attached to it before she was able to track down the owner: the person who rented the apartment before her, who told her it had been missing for three months.
Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I feel like “There might be a python somewhere around here” is something you should mention if you decide to leave an apartment after your snake escapes. The owner said they will retrieve the snake this week, and Jones told the outlet she may end up getting another one to replace it after growing fond of its presence.