St. Patrick is said to have driven them from Ireland, but the current government won't Chase them out.
Welcome to their home:
"Idaho ‘snake house’ left owners’ skin crawling; Infested building in bank’s hands but has no buyers" by Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press / June 16, 2011
REXBURG, Idaho — They slithered behind the walls at night and released foul-smelling musk into the drinking water. And they were so numerous that Ben Sessions once killed 42 in a single day.
Shortly after buying their dream home, Sessions and his wife discovered it was infested with thousands of garter snakes. For the next three months, their growing family lived as if in a horror movie.
Worse because it was REAL!
More than a year after they abandoned the property, the home briefly went back on the market, and they fear it could someday attract another unsuspecting buyer....
So which bank held the mortgage?
While setting up a chicken coop, Sessions lifted a piece of sheet metal and was startled to see a pair of snakes slither away. A few days later, he found more and soon started to collect dozens in buckets. At times, there were so many in the yard that the grass seemed to move.
If he rapped a stick against the roof overhang, he could hear dozens scattering, their scales sliding against the aluminum. After he removed some panels of siding, dozens of snakes popped out. When he made his way through the crawl space to investigate further, he found snakes everywhere.
That’s when he realized his family was probably living atop a garter snake den where the nonpoisonous reptiles congregate in the fall and winter.
The poisonous den is located on Wall Street.
Sessions quickly developed a daily snake-fighting routine. Before his pregnant wife, Amber, and two small boys got out of bed, he would do a “morning sweep’’ through the house to make sure none of the snakes had gotten inside.
One day, Amber Sessions screamed from the laundry room, where she had almost stepped on one. He rushed in to find that she had jumped onto a counter.
“I was terrified she was going to miscarry,’’ he said.
When they bought the house, the couple had signed a document that noted the snake infestation.
Fine print, or.... ?? WTF?
They said they had been assured by their real estate agent that the snakes were just a story invented by the previous owners to leave their mortgage behind.
I think the agent should be made to spend a month at the house.
They soon learned that nearly everyone else in this tiny college town knew the snakes were real....
At night, the couple would lie awake and listen to slithering inside the walls.
Yeah, um, I wouldn't be getting any sleep either.
During the day, the family often had to eat out because their well water smelled like the musk released by the snakes as a warning to predators.
But because of the paperwork they had signed, the couple had little recourse when they decided to flee the home. They filed for bankruptcy protection, and the bank foreclosed on the house....
Amber Sessions said she felt their family was starting to fall apart. “It felt like we were living in Satan’s lair. That’s the only way to really explain it.’’
Sadly, Israel just popped into my head for some reason.
Several months ago, the house briefly went back on the market.
Now WhoTF would want to DO THAT?
Now owned by JP Morgan Chase, it was listed at $114,900 in December, according to Zillow.com, a real estate data firm. That price fell to $109,200 in January.
(Blog editor can only shake head from side to side)
Then, the Animal Planet network featured the Sessions’ story in its “Infested’’ series.
Oh, you can't sell that house now.
The listing was removed, and it has stayed off the market while Chase decides what to do with it.
Either abandon the thing and take the loss or wrecking ball it and start over.
--more--"
I filed the post under Animal Cruelty because it is unfair to the snakes to compare them to bankers.
