Lowe's customer bitten by rattlesnake

[janette]

Lowe's customer bitten by rattlesnake

06:04 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 14, 2004

By BRIAN ANDERSON / DallasNews.com

The story has all the makings of a classic urban legend, but paramedics say there was nothing fake about the snake bite suffered by a Lowe’s shopper in Broken Arrow, Okla., on Sunday.

“He had a definite bite mark – two puncture wounds on the left outer hand,” said Dustin Lunow, a firefighter/paramedic for the Broken Arrow Fire Department. “It was legitimate as legitimate can be.”


Police and paramedics were dispatched to the Lowe’s Home Improvement store at 1:24 p.m. Sunday after receiving reports that a man had been bitten by a rattlesnake. The victim, identified only as a Broken Arrow man in his mid-30s, told authorities he was perusing the store’s selection of birch trees when he felt what he thought was a thorn prick to his hand.

“He pulled it out and the snake was still dangling from his hand,” Lunow said, adding that other shoppers stepped in and beat the 18-inch-long snake to death. He said the snake’s rattles were still moving when he arrived on the scene.

The victim was transported to a Tulsa hospital for treatment. The dead snake, coiled inside a plastic Lowe’s shopping bag, accompanied him in the ambulance.

Jennifer Smith, a Lowe’s company spokeswoman in Mooresville, N.C., said the snake was later identified as an eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

“We understand this type of snake isn’t native to Oklahoma,” Smith said, explaining that the snake may have been shipped along with the trees from a vendor in Tennessee.

Sunday’s incident bore striking similarities to an October incident reported at a Wal-Mart store in Brownwood, Texas. A 31-year-old carpenter from nearby Bangs said he was reaching to take a pair of shoes from a store shelf when he was bitten by a 16-inch-long western diamondback rattlesnake. The man said he stomped the snake to death before notifying store employees.

However, officials at Brownwood Regional Medical Center later filed a police report claiming the incident was a hoax. A store investigation came to the same conclusion.

“We did close the case, and we denied the claim,” said Suzanne Haney, a spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart. “We did a very thorough investigation on this.”

Lowe’s officials said they were unaware of the Texas hoax and had no reason to suspect foul play in the Oklahoma incident.

“It certainly is a very unusual, isolated case,” Smith said.

 

[MosMom]

When I first read this I thought "Oh this is urban legend garbage". Whoops! I might look twice before sticking my hand into shrubs!

 

[WhenUwishUponAstar]

OMG!

I live in Broken Arrow and he's around my age I wonder if I know him??!! I gotta watch the news more often. I will call the BA hotline (my inlaws) to see who it was tomorrow!!

 

[two4ruff]

 

[peachgirl]

Yikes! And to think I was shopping for plants at that Lowe's last Friday!


They did have a huge new shipment in that they were unloading. I remember complaining because it was impossible to find anything the way everything was stacked on top of each other.


I'm glad I didn't decide to dig around!

 

[Stepharoonie!]

That is my BIGGEST fear in life...snakes. I can NOT stand them. Oh my goodness, I don't know what I would have done had that been me!!

 

[edcrbnsoul]

My wife would have died just from the fright...she see them come on TV and gasps "why do they have to have snakes on TV" LOL

 

[peg2001]

I'm sorry about this. We do try to keep our Tennessee snakes in-state.

Peggy

 

[WhenUwishUponAstar]

lol yes please do!

 

[christineann]

I haven't seen a snake at a garden center, but I did see a pretty big rat on one of the shelves. Yuck! I look very carefully now.