Police find over 150 snakes in basement of Newburgh home
NEWBURGH, New York (WABC) -- Police discovered over 150 snakes in the basement of a home in Orange County Tuesday after learning that the man who lives there had been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Department of Environmental Conservation Police Officers and members of the Bureau of Environmental Crimes Investigation unit executed a search warrant at a home on Maple Street in Newburgh after being alerted about the snake bite by Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
The man was treated at the hospital Sunday after being bitten by a venomous Asian pit viper he owned. He received five doses of anti-venom and was released on Monday.
157 snakes were then found in the basement of his home. The man did not have a license to possess any of the snakes, authorities said.
Venomous snakes are illegal to possess in the state of New York without a license, and are only licensed for educational or exhibition purposes.
A team of experts from the Bronx Zoo assisted with the retrieval of the snakes and they are now in quarantine at the zoo, pending the outcome of the case.
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