Man opens package in mail, finds live rattlesnake
WeirdNews
His family in Florida got a similar parcel
(Web Desk) - A truck driver picked up a package from a Southern California post office and discovered that it contained a live snake — and now says he's trying to find out if he has 'any enemies'
A man says he suspects that someone attempted to murder him after he was mailed a live rattlesnake.
Elijah Bowles of Florida told the Los Angeles Times that he and a friend were driving away from the post office in Twentynine Palms, Calif. — in the Mojave Desert and near Joshua Tree National Park — where he had just picked up a package.
As the pair were in the car, Bowles asked his friend to open the box, he said.
"When she opened the box, she threw it at me almost,” he told the Times. "And she says, 'There's a snake in there.'"
The 60-year-old truck driver then pulled over, placed the box on the ground and proceeded to open it with a stick.
He estimated the snake, later determined to be a rattlesnake, was over two feet long and surrounded by cotton balls in the box so that postal workers could not hear the rattle, he told the outlet.
After Bowles called 911, deputies and animal control officers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department (SBCSD) responded, the department said.
The investigation is now being handled by the U.S. Postal Inspector, the SBCSD said.
SBCSD public information officer Mara Rodriguez told PEOPLE in a statement that animal control took possession of the snake.
According to the Times, a postal inspector said that the package was marked "fragile" in black marker and had a return address in Palm Coast, Fla.
Tracking information also states that the box was mailed from Hayward, Calif., near the San Francisco Bay Area, on May 3.
Bowles told the Times that he worried the snake was intentionally sent to harm him — especially after he learned on Monday, May 20, that another virtually identical package had been sent to his house in Florida.
He told his family members to take it to the police station rather than open it, he said.
“That’s attempted murder, if you ask me,” Bowles told the outlet.
"I'm trying to figure out, do I have any enemies?" he added. "I'm not a gangster. I'm a truck driver."
