Cobra gives woman a big fright

2009-01-06 09:42

Gloria Edwards

Johannesburg - A widow from Nigel got the fright of her life when she found a deadly Bushveld cobra waiting for her after her Sunday afternoon nap.

Lomie Bender, 77, said on Monday that she went to lie down after church and woke up at about 15:15.

When she got up, the snake was waiting for her in the passage of her house.

"I got such a huge fright! He saw me and pulled up his head. Then I slammed the door shut and ran outside through the back door. Fortunately I had my cellphone in my hand and could immediately call Bernie's Patrols (a security company). They, and the police, were here within minutes to help me."

Meanwhile, the snake looked for shelter behind the television cabinet in her TV room.

"The security guard first wanted to shoot him, but he didn't want to damage the furniture. A policeman then struggled for almost half an hour to catch the snake. It was very aggressive. If I had come out of my room five minutes later, he probably would have cornered me in my bed and attacked me!

"It is a poisonous, dangerous thing."

Very venomous

According to Bender, the snake had been seen a few days before in a neighbour's yard, after they returned from a holiday.

Inspector Magnus Olwage of the Nigel police's cattle theft unit caught the snake. "I keep snakes but this kind is too dangerous to be a pet," he said.

Olwage took the snake to Mike Perry at a Diepsloot smallholding. Perry looks after about 500 poisonous snakes and supplies their venom to antidote producers.

He suspected that the snake had perhaps gotten into the neighbour's car and had arrived in Nigel this way.

"This kind of snake was previously called a yellow Egyptian cobra, but is now known as the Bushveld cobra. It is not usually found in these parts. His natural habitat is in areas like the Hartbeespoort Dam. It does, however, frequently happen that snakes get into cars, especially under the engine," said Perry.

He thought the snake was about a year old. "He is 45cm long and as wide as my pinkie. Still young, but very venomous. His neurotoxic venom paralyses the body and stops lung functioning."

- Beeld