Story originally appeared on suntimes.com by Lauren Jacobsen.

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Imagine your surprise when you walk out of your front door and find a massive snake on your front porch.

That's exactly what happened when one Uptown resident Gregory Agid and a friend walked out of his home on Magazine Street not too far from Washington Avenue on Monday.

Rat Snake in bush
 

Agid called Trapper John Schmidt and Trapper Suzy “RN” Howard, who came over after calls to animal control, the SPCA and Wildlife and Fisheries were unsuccessful after 24 hours, according to WWLTV.com.

“My guesstimate was he was probably 4 or 5 feet long. And sure enough, it was a big, big snake,” said Agid of the unusually large snake wrapped around a potted tree on his front stairs.

The trappers say rat snakes are common to New Orleans along with exotic pets like pythons and boa that sometimes get loose. So whenever the trappers get a call about a snake, they know it's an exotic snake.

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Trapper John said, “The snakes go into the rat nest and get the baby rats and they eat them. Rat snakes are good to have, which is exactly why that rat snake lives under my house right now.”

Link to Magazine Street Snake Surprise on Porch.