A California woman basically experienced everyone’s worst fear made manifest on Wednesday when a huge snake slithered out of a toilet she was plunging.
The Columbian rainbow boa is 5-feet and 6-inches long, according the County of San Diego, and its origins are a mystery.
"What we have here is an urban myth come to life I guess," Dan DeSousa, the deputy director of the San Diego County Department of Animal Services, said in a video posted to the county communication's office website.
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According to the county, the woman was in the bathroom at an office building in downtown San Diego when she noticed the water level in the toilet was unusually high.
When she began to plunge the toilet, the snake slithered out.
DeSousa said the woman closed the door shut with Scotch Tape and called Animal Services.
The snake was underweight, shedding, and bit the handler dispatched to fetch it.
DeSousa said the snake could have been underwater for an extended period of time but he is unsure how long the snake was in the sewage system.
The owner of the snake said the next day that he was sorry for any anxiety the escape may have caused other tenants.
U-T San Diego reported that he and the landlord agreed that the snake would be better off at a friend's house.
"It was his idea first, and I agreed," landlord Jason Zana told the paper, adding that "many tenants were troubled at the thought of a large snake in the building."