New Jersey man finds second python in yard in less than a week

High school teacher James Geist was shocked when what he thought was a fallen tree branch in his backyard turned out to be a 16-foot albino python.

"Dispatch told me to stay away, and I'm not a fan of snakes so I wasn't going to go near the thing," Geist told The Bergen Record.

But just four days later the 46-year-old New Jersey resident spotted a second python in his back yard.

And while the first python was "docile" the second one, which is 10-feet-long, reportedly snapped at police a few times before the same snake handler who had just been there earlier in the week showed up to help.

"I would rather face a black bear than a python," he said.

Still, that sounds less frightening than a 2010 incident during which police found a hungry albino python resting on top of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine while raiding a suspected drug dealer's apartment.

Earlier in July, a 12-foot python was recovered in Massachusetts after it bit a man.

The snake handler told Geist that the albino python was worth $8,000 and the second snake was also worth "a couple thousand."

While police still don't know exactly where the pythons are coming from, they speculated that they were likely released by someone nearby who had recently moved away. Releasing pythons into the wild is a crime in many states, including Florida.

The albino python was nearly one for the record books, as the largest known python in captivity was measured at 18 feet.

Geist says the back-to-back appearances have left him more than a little cautious, refusing to step outside barefoot or without a flashlight after dark.

"I'll be pretty happy when the winter comes because it will kill any more pythons that are out there," Geist told the paper. "I just hope there's no cobras."