Fort Rouge neighbourhood on edge after snake sighting

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This article was published 13/06/2021 (1744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was snake on the plains this weekend as a more than two-metre long reptile slithered its way through a Fort Rouge neighbourhood.

Residents in the area of the 600 block of Ebby Avenue, near Pembina Highway, were looking down with a lot more vigilance on Saturday and Sunday after a long thin white-coloured snake with markings was spotted moving through a backyard.

“I was just mowing the lawn and then I saw this gigantic wild thing on my backyard,” said Breno Martins about his reptilian encounter on Saturday afternoon.

“I actually didn’t see it. My wife did. She was yelling. Trying to point that this big gigantic snake was in my backyard.”

His wife, Evelynne, finally captured her oblivious husband’s attention.

“He uses air pods,” she said. “I started screaming… finally he could listen and said ‘What?’, (I said) ‘Oh my god a snake is there’ and he went ‘Oh.'”

Martins said he watched — and took photos and video — as the snake slithered from his backyard, to the front yard, and then over to a neighbour’s bush where it disappeared into the leaves.

“Yes, it was terrifying,” he said. “I called the number for animal control, but they don’t work on the weekend, so I called 911. They told me to call the non-emergency line. And they contacted with animal service.

“They got here about 30 minutes after. We were just watching, trying to keep an eye on him, but it just disappeared.

“My wife and my neighbour, the three of us, were just watching where he went. He was just inside the bushes. We couldn’t see when he escaped. They destroyed the whole garden, but they couldn’t find anything.”

Winnipeg police said late Saturday afternoon that a white snake, about eight feet in length, had been “observed in the area of Ebby Avenue.”

Shortly after noon on Sunday, Winnipeg police issued an update — but it wasn’t good news.

“The snake has not been located yet,” Winnipeg police said on social media.

“If sighted, call 911, however, the situation is being handled by Animal Services (Agency).”

Not surprisingly, Martins said the neighbourhood continues to be on high alert.

“Everyone is super wired about it,” he said.

“Especially people with young children. We have no idea where it is and no one has come looking for it. They are probably embarrassed.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca