A long black and green snake was spotted slithering about the shrubbery of Washington Square Park yesterday, prompting frightened calls to the police, since everyone knows snakes belong only on the subway.

Reports on the snake's length vary—NBC calls it 10-feet, while the typically sensationalist Daily News demurs to the more modest length of two feet. The rattled woman who called 911 apparently told the operator it measured more than 9-feet, though in reality, the snake is probably more than 32-feet-long, with an appetite in particular for tourists meandering slowly down the street on cell phones.

Police successfully restrained the reptilian suspect, moving it first to a garbage bag holding cell and then to a cardboard box. It will be incarcerated in a shelter in Greenwich Village while awaiting trial on charges of loitering and disturbing the peace.

