Engineer Kurt Carman was overseeing the Albany Water Department’s emergency contractor crew, which was working Friday on a water main break at a construction site at the Tivoli Lake Preserve.

“All of a sudden we got a call. The operator said he pulled a snake out of the brush, then he sent us a picture, and it was no ordinary snake, it was a huge, ended up being a python at that time we didn’t know exactly what kind of snake it was,” said Carman. “We got down there, and it ended up being 14 feet long. When he pulled it out, he said he thought it was a tire and then all of a sudden he realized it was a snake, and it started getting aggressive and snapping at the bucket a few times.”

An excavator was clearing before digging. The operator tried to pin it down. The snake was killed.

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, the snake is a reticulated python that measures 12 feet 10 inches, likely a pet released into the wild.

DEC Regional Wildlife Biologist Mike Clark says pythons are illegal to have in New York state.

“There’s no way this snake is native to New York or would have even survived any of the winters that we have here in Upstate New York,” said Clark. “This certainly was a released animal. It’s possible it could have been out from the springtime, but that would have been the latest.”

The Albany Water Department still had a job to do.

“That crew did work all night, so they kept looking over their shoulder throughout the night, making sure there wasn’t another one!” said Carman.

“The big thing is making sure that whatever pets are brought into New York or purchased are legal to have and on our public DEC website there’s a list of dangerous animals that the public cannot keep,” said Clark. “These animals do start out small but over time they do grow into large animals and become a safety hazard so obviously make sure whatever pet you’d like to have is legal to have in New York, make sure you have adequate housing for it, and if a pet ever does outgrow you, your family, or a cage, at least reach out to local authorities for a proper way of disposing it and not just letting it go in wild lands or a park or something like that.”