William Winans, a one-year-old boy in Mattoon, Ill., is recovering after an escaped python crawled into his crib, wrapped itself around his leg and bit him, ABC News and The Herald & Review report.
According to the below video from ABC News, Devin Winans, William’s father, went into the boy’s room after he heard him moving around in his crib. He reached into the crib and felt something “really slimy.
“I immediately turned the light on and saw the snake, a ball python, wrapped around his foot, constricting it, and trying to eat his foot,” he said in an interview with ABC News.
Devin Winans pulled the snake off William and the boy was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for the bite on his foot.
According to follow-up report in The Herald Review, the escaped python belonged to the occupant of a neighboring apartment. Mattoon police cited Shelby C. Guyette, 23, for not having a secure terrarium.
Sadly, there have been other instances of pet snakes escaping and attacking children.
Last July, Jaren Hare and Charles “Jason” Darnell, a Florida couple, were found guilty in the death of Hare’s 2-year-old daughter, Shaianna. The toddler was strangled in 2009 by a pet Burmese python that had escaped from its aquarium.
To hear from Sara Lacey, William’s mother, watch the below video from ABC News.
