After closing down the mall for two full days, Cara the 12-foot albino Burmese python has finally been found thanks to a painstaking search.
What do you do when a 150-pound, 12-foot python escapes its enclosure and becomes loose in a crowded mall? You shut the place down! This was exactly the case for the Mall of Louisiana for two full days after Cara, an albino Burmese python, broke loose from her Blue Zoo terrarium.
To find Cara, a representative for the mall’s Blue Zoo flew in to take a leading role in the search, cites local WBRZ. The news station states that “crews had been searching for Cara day and night.”
Finally, their efforts were “met with success around 3:45 a.m. Thursday,” when the 12-foot python was found within a crawl space.
In short: an enormous serpent the length of two full-grown men spent 48 hours in the crawl space beneath the Mall of Louisiana. Nightmares incoming.
After locating her, Cara would go to the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine for a checkup.
“After being examined by the zoological medicine team at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, Cara the Python is discharged and going home!” the university said Thursday with a photo of staff alongside Cara.
The python would then exit her vet stay with a clean bill of health Thursday afternoon.
Cara the Python Gives Louisianans Quite the Scare
As for how all this happened, Blue Zoo reps are on it. An investigation into Cara’s escape is currently ongoing. But her keepers still have absolutely no idea how she managed her daring escape.
WBRZ says once staff figures out how Cara’s escape occurred, Blue Zoo will then take measures to ensure it never happens again.
Curiously, when listening to the audio for the Blue Zoo’s initial call to local animal control, Blue Zoo staff can be heard saying they need “professional help” – implying that no trained zookeepers, nor any equipped to deal with such emergency situation, exist on Blue Zoo’s staff.
“You being the professionals…” a Blue Zoo worker tells an animal control operator in the shocking audio – which you can hear here courtesy of WBRZ.
“We need your help locating our friend,” the call continues. “We’ve checked all over, but for us to get professional help, is a little more secure…”
While on the call, Blue Zoo workers describe security camera footage showing Cara the python “slithering out” of her enclosure. She would then enter their store’s ceiling near the Mall of Louisiana’s Dillard’s location.
Cara was Missing for ‘More Than a Day’ Before Blue Zoo Called Animal Control
“I didn’t sleep well,” another worker confesses in the background. “I was on the break of going into…shock.”
Shockingly, this quote reveals that Blue Zoo’s python was loose for a full 24 hours before the staff would call professionals. The call took place Tuesday morning, with Cara’s escape taking place the Monday morning prior around 2 a.m.
“She went into the ceiling… Now, the mall of Louisiana is closed because there’s a 12-foot Burmese python loose,” staff told animal control in the same call. “[The snake is] in the roofing area of our facility, we don’t think she has access outside of our facility.”
“That presents a problem already,” animal control responded.
What a time.
