By Della Hasselle and Heather Grossmann



DNAinfo Reporter/Producer



HARLEM — A Parks Department employee got a nasty surprise Wednesday afternoon when she discovered a six-foot python in the Harlem park where she was working.



Yessenia Camacho, 29, said she was picking up trash in the north east corner of St. Nicholas Park about 2 p.m., near the 140th Street entrance, when what she thought was a piece of garbage in the bushes turned out to be the snake's head.

"I jumped. I was surprised because I thought it was a piece of paper, but it was a snake — a very big snake," Camacho said. "It scared the hell out of me!"

Camacho called her office in Morningside Park and they called a special services department of the NYPD. Police said they arrived at the park shortly after 2:15 p.m. and trapped the snake. They took it to an animal shelter at 110th Street, between First and Second avenues.

A six-foot Burmese Python was found in a Harlem Park Wednesday afternoon. View Full Caption DNAinfo

Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's department of Animal Care and Control, confirmed that the snake was a dark brown and tan Burmese Python about six feet in length and weighing ten pounds.

The snake is not native to the area, and Gentles speculated that it had been a house pet that had gotten either too large or too aggressive for its owner, who then abandoned it in the park.

Gentles said the Python will likely end up in a snake sanctuary.

Shawn Faison, a veterinarian tech assistant for Animal Care and Control, said that the snake was in good shape when they got it this afternoon.

"He's very healthy. He looks like he was owned, because he was so healthy. Luckily, he was found and brought to a shelter," Faison said.



Camacho, who grew up in Harlem but now lives in the Bronx, said that prior to Wednesday, she had only seen a snake like that at the zoo.

"Welcome to the Parks Department," said the city employee, who just started working with Parks two months ago.