N. Idaho Police Capture Unlikely Suspect

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Police departments get calls about proverbial snakes in the grass all the time. But officers in Lewiston recently responded to such a call to find it was literal — a 6-foot-long python was loitering in someone's backyard.

Police Captain Roger Lanier told the Lewiston Tribune that Thomas Watts called police Tuesday to report the intruder in a garden behind his apartment complex. Lanier said officers were able to wrangle the reptile into two recycle bins, which they zip-tied together before bringing the snake to Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine in Pullman.

College spokesman Charlie Powell says the snake is a female red-tailed python and is likely someone's pet because it's used to being handled. Lanier says no one has come forward to claim the snake yet.