Snake Shedding Found In Downtown Bangor Has People On Alert

Some folks walking in Bangor this weekend got quite the surprise when they came across something a bit unusual on the side of the road. Gillian Yarmal said when she first saw it, she wasn't sure what it was.

"We were walking down Center St. at about 7 am on Saturday, and I noticed the first piece of snake skin right in the middle of a parking lot. I think it was the auto shop at the end of Willow Street."

"I went over and picked it up, and it felt very fresh. It was very [pliable]."

Upon finding the first piece, Yarmal said she started to look around to see where it might have come from.

"So I looked around, and I noticed more right next to the telephone pole next to us about 15 feet away. This piece was larger."

"I was definitely nervous when I found it. I don't live far from there, and I have two cats that would become food if it were to make its way inside."

"I also worried for the poor snake. They obviously got out of somewhere and or someone let it out. Which I really hope isn't the case."

Yarmal says while she is no snake expert, by any means, she's also not afraid of them. But she will be a little more aware of her surroundings, from this point forward.

"I have been out, trying to keep my eye out."

Bobbi Lunt was in Bangor this weekend, too, and also came across a snake skin shedding as she parked along State Street Hill.

"My husband and I were meeting friends Saturday afternoon, and I was driving. He got out of the car and said 'Bobbi, come over here now!' I honestly thought he was going to complain about my parking…lol. I walked over to the passenger side, side near [the] sidewalk, and he pointed to the shed."

"I HATE snakes. I could have died. I told him I saw someone post a pic on the Penobscot Scanner FB page. He thought I was lying, so I pulled it up and showed him. The shed was [a] pretty good size.

Lunt says she's not sure what to think about the situation.

"In my honest opinion, I hope someone is just playing a stupid prank and maybe they collected their pets shed and have been placing it around the city. I hope to God there is not a snake that large slithering the streets."

While Maine does have some native snakes that can get to be pretty large, if this is a non-native snake, it wouldn't be the first time such a reptile got out and ended up in a place it wasn't meant to be.

Jamie Baker lives in Bangor, and in 2011, her family made a startling discovery.

"California king snake ended up in my basement."

They discovered the snake when they went to retrieve a binder from a shelf.

"It was loose for a few days in the neighborhood (Capehart - bald mountain drive) then we were able to catch it."

Thankfully, Californa King snakes are not venomous.

Baker says she called some Maine Herpetologists to come and get the animal. It's believed some neighbors who had been recently evicted had been keeping the snake and just let it go outside when they were kicked out of the building.

"I felt bad it wasn't native and wanted it safe but not near me lol. Once we had it the snake people came to get it. They said it was just a baby."

We reached out to Bangor's Animal Control Officer, Trisha Bruen, to see if she had heard about any sightings of the snake or the shedding, and she had not. But she said she wasn't surprised by the reports.

"Someone probably put it out with the garbage and it ended up on the ground. More people have pet snakes than I like to think about!"

Keep an eye out, Bangor. You never know what you'll find out there.