Fearless great-grandma kills venomous snake with shovel in her yard
FALLS TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- It's is not something you expect to see in Bucks County, Pa. but it happened Monday.
A woman found a cobra on her patio and wasn't going to wait around and do nothing until animal control arrived.
"I opened the door, I said a bad word. It's a cobra, I knew right away," said Kathy Kehoe.
She says Blue Jays squawking led her to look outside her apartment door. On the patio she found a cobra.
She snapped a few photos first then as the snake slithered away this no-nonsense great grandmother grabbed her shovel and chased after the four to five-foot snake into the yard.
"He went this way. I stalked him and when he got over to here I tapped his tail. He went up and that's when I did the deed and held him there," she says.
Kehoe thinks the venomous reptile may have been roaming around this apartment complex for months. Back in March, authorities removed 20 venomous snakes from a neighboring apartment, including 12 cobras.
Kehoe had worried that some escaped. She says she knew she needed to kill this one to protect kids in the neighborhood.
"I was just concerned for everybody else because not everyone would know," she said.
"It's incredibly scary to me that cobras are running loose on the property," said Alise Kaplan who lives nearby.
Police told Action News that it's unclear whether the snake is connected to the apartment that was raided in March.
What is clear is that Kehoe is terribly lucky she didn't miss.
Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Susan Tyson-Pello of the Mount Laurel Animal Hospital warned that most snake bites occur when someone tries to attack or capture the reptile.
Tyson-Pello recommends that if you see a venomous snake to leave it alone and contact authorities.
Nonetheless, Kehoe has earned the respect of her neighbors.
"Great job, Kathy. Awesome," said Jim Andrews.
"She's a bad ass. I don't know if you can say that on tv but she's a bad ass," said Kaplan.
