Deadly snake on the loose in Baldwin County

“I was going down the highway, when I saw the snake crossing the road going into the cemetery,” recalls Lora Brown.

Brown took a picture of the three-foot venomous snake while sitting in her car at the intersection of Deerwood Drive and Harrisburg Road in Milledgeville. 

“I have talked to the GBI, the Game Wardens and all. I have been interviewed and I have had my phone checked to actually show that this is not a hoax,” explains Brown.

State Rangers are warning Baldwin County residents not to approach the snake, but instead call 911.

“The snake was identified as a Gaboon Viper, which is a highly venomous snake, that does not exist around here,” explains Sgt. Bo Kelly of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Michael Lumpkin says they are taking the snake threat seriously.

“We’re gonna kill it, we’ve not been able to find the snake,” adds Lumpkin. “We will notify DNR and follow their lead and hopefully through instruction and for  public safety they may tell us to dispatch the snake.”

Residents are doing whatever they can to keep the deadly reptile away from their homes and businesses.  The owner of Sunshine Foods is placing moth balls around his store.

“Everybody was scared especially my customers and myself,” Shamum Toufiq tells 41NBC. “The snakes do not like the smell of this kind of thing and they stay away from it. So, that’s why I spread that away.”

Brown wants the the snake out of her community so residents can stop being afraid.

“Kids walk up and down the road everyday, they’re either riding bicycles, they go to the store down there at the bottom, they go up the road to a playground there,” continues Brown.