Neighbors on alert for loose python in Tennessee

July 24 (UPI) -- A Tennessee neighborhood is on alert after a local woman snapped photos of a python slithering just outside of her home.

Constance Carson said she has spotted the large snake slithering around her Memphis property and the vacant home next door on three occasions.

"It was huge and it scared the living daylights out of me," Carson told WREG-TV. "My initial reaction -- I ran. I screamed."

Carson said neighbors have attempted to capture the python, but they have thus far been unsuccessful in tracking the serpent, which is usually spotted at night.

"By it being so hot, the snake hid and we don't know where it is right now, so it's just kinda pins and needles," Carson said.

She said wildlife experts looked at her photos and identified the snake as a python, a non-native species that was likely an escaped or abandoned pet.

Carson said neighbors are keeping their kids and pets indoors while the search for the snake continues.

"I just want it to be gone. It's an animal so I don't want anything to happen to it," she said.

A Virginia man revealed this week that a ball python was removed from the toilet inside his home. James Hooper said he and his roommate captured the serpent and turned it over to authorities, who were able to reunite the escaped pet with its owner.