This sure wasn’t snail mail.
A Bronx resident received a scaly surprise shipment Friday — an 8-foot python, police said.
“A #Bronx resident left his house this morning to find this unexpected ssssssneaky visitor by his mailbox. #ESU was quick to respond and Detective Otero took control of the 8 foot python,” the tweet read.
The NYPD’s resident snake wrangler, Det. Jose Otero, was called in around 7:30 a.m. when residents spotted the snake outside the house on Fteley Avenue in Soundview.
Otero said in an interview when cops arrived they found the serpent “hissing” with its tail wrapped around a lighting fixture on the front of the house— and “definitely agitated.”
The detective, who has owned a number of pet reptiles over the years, said he used a snake hook to “gently press the snake’s head so [he] could unwrap the tail” and get it under control.
Otero then bagged the constrictor with some help from a neighbor, who gave him a cotton pillowcase to safely transport to Animal Care Centers on NYC.
“This is the biggest snake so far [this year],” the 21-year veteran said of the red-tailed boa, which was the fourth he captured this year.
The detective said he’s lost count of how many loose snakes he’s wrangled since joining ESU 18 years ago— but recalled pulling serpents from a number of random places, including toilets and car engines.
Boa constrictors are not indigenous to the Big Apple; this one was likely someone’s unwanted pet.