Snakes and ladders: Prague police find California coral in Prague 8 building

Neighbors come in all shapes and sizes, including people who literally nourish snakes in their bosom – until the said serpents escape into communal areas such as a building’s stairway. This recently happened in Prague 8 according to Prague police, which received a call from the person who spotted the snake.

“The stairs of an apartment building are a place of meeting and social interaction between tenants, with its own unwritten rules. When you meet a nice neighbor, you exchange a few sentences in a friendly manner. You help an older lady with the shopping, and if one of the neighbors around you falls, you step back and try to record the whole situation on your mobile phone,” the Prague police said on Instagram.

What should you do in the (hopefully) unlikely event of a close encounter with a snake in the stairway of the building? According to Prague police, the caller in Prague 8 chose “the best possible solution,” which was calling 156 and “waiting for the arrival of officers, who transported the snake to a shelter in Troja, where it was identified as California kingsnake.”

The police didn’t mention whether this type of snake is venomous, or if it lived up to the saying about striped snakes being mean. The foundling is now in the care of the shelter employees and is waiting for the rightful owner to claim it.