Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
8-foot python startles man inside his Pines garage
Joseph Liscinsky had just let his dog out for his morning walk when he spotted the deadly guest that had slithered its way into his garage: An 8-foot python.
“I didn’t have a heart attack,” he said. “But my adrenaline kicked in and my heart started pounding. I was stunned because I was a foot away from it.”
Liscinsky, a longtime Pembroke Pines resident, recalled Monday how he found himself wrangling with the creature Friday morning after whisking his 14-pound pooch to safety.
“I grabbed him right away and put him in the house,” he said. “Then I went to town with the snake.”
With neighbors using their phones to record the capture, Liscinsky, 60, went after his prey with a mop handle
and pillow case. In just minutes, he was able to get the python inside the pillow case using a trick he picked up from watching the pros on “Wild Kingdom,” a televised show about nature and wildlife.
Pythons are not venomous but their bite is sharp.
Take on a snake and you might get snake bit. And that’s exactly what happened to Liscinsky.
“He got my fingers,” said Liscinsky, taking his wounds in stride. “As long as he didn’t get my dog. He would have been crushed by that snake. I was lucky I went out with him.”
Liscinsky didn’t bother calling his doctor. Instead he called wildlife officials, hoping they’d take the snake.
They showed up an hour later and told him it would be euthanized.
In the meantime, Liscinsky has become a local celebrity of sorts.
“My neighbors were shooting video while I was trying to wrestle the snake,” he said. “They all enjoyed it. My phone wouldn’t stop ringing. They put it on the news.”
He’s even getting recognized around town. “The frozen food guy recognized me and said, ‘Hey snake man.’ ”
Liscinsky joked about checking with state officials to see about collecting a hunter’s fee.
The South Florida Water Management District has launched a python-killing pilot program that ends June 1. Snake hunters who capture pythons on public land are getting $50 for pythons up to 4 feet and $25 for each additional foot beyond that. Under the program, an 8-foot python would net a payout of $150.
But Liscinsky says he has no intention of becoming a snake hunter.
“I have too many other things to do to get involved in python hunt,” he said. “I’m busy building a shed right now.”
Pythons have infested the Everglades thanks to pet owners who released them into the wild, where they feast on raccoons, wading birds, alligators and other native wildlife.
Liscinsky is hoping the python was a pet that got away.
“I live on a canal,” Liscinsky said. “Those things use the waterways to travel. If this was wild, there may be more out there.”
If he sees any more pythons, he plans to build a fence, he says.
Neighbor Zelma Colon said she was surprised Liscinsky took on a python, but she understands why.
“That was very brave of him to do that,” she said. “He loves that dog. That’s his baby, his life.”