Python journeys from Missouri to New Jersey

CLIFTON, N.J. -- Like something out of a Disney film, the story of Paco the Python is a serpentine tale of a pet snake missing in Missouri for more than a month until turning up 1,000 miles away, accidentally shipped to New Jersey in a box with a DVD player being sent for repairs.

And like any good Disney yarn, this one has a properly happy ending. Paco has been making python friends and feasting on pre killed rats in a cozy cage at an NJ Pets store in Clifton, and will be shipped back home to Missouri, this time in temperature-controlled comfort.

"We're just so glad he's alive," said Sheila Himmerick, who had bought Paco as a gift for her teenage son, Rusty. "They don't like the cold, they've got be a good 80 degrees or more. And it was pretty cold. I sent it ground delivery."

It all started one night last month when Himmerick and her 17-year-old son were at home in Jefferson City, Mo., and couldn't get their get their new DVD player to work. They called the manufacturer, Samsung, and were told to ship the player to the company's return center in Secaucus, N.J., at Samsung's expense.

So, Himmerick packed up the player, but left the box unsealed in case any additional packing instructions came with the UPS shipping label that Samsung said it would send her. The label arrived, and on Nov. 22 off went the DVD player, signed and sealed, via ground delivery toward the wilds of New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Paco, a three-foot, four-pound ball python with brown and yellow markings, had been out of sight for a month, having slithered off somewhere during one of his regular furloughs from his cage. The disappearance was no big deal at the five-acre Himmerick homestead, where Paco was sometimes not seen for weeks, and where the animal-loving family's five cats, two birds, three dogs and one rabbit -- though not the three horses -- had the run of the house.

"We just assumed he was in Rusty's closet, because my son has a lot of shoes," said Himmerick. She added that Paco's diet was three mice per week, but as a snake, he didn't have to eat that often, so his skipping a few meals was not particularly troubling.

What must have happened, Himmerick and authorities eventually concluded, was that Paco slithered into the unsealed box, and hid beneath the foam peanuts she packed the DVD player in.

It was at the end of the month, right about the time Himmerick told Rusty to clean out his closet to find Paco, that she got a call from Samsung's New Jersey repair shop, CVE Inc. She said someone there asked whether that was her snake in the DVD box, and was that her way of expressing her customer dissatisfaction.

"My heart fell," said Himmerick, 38, a secretary for a gasoline distribution company. "You just get that lump in your throat. It was just, 'Oh, my God! What have I done?"'

A woman who answered the phone at CVE said the company had no comment on the incident.

Secaucus Town Animal Warden Kevin Kessler, who was called to CVE to handle the python, said Paco was a bit listless but unharmed, and that no charges were filed.

"Things like this do happen," Kessler said.

At NJ Pets on Monday, Paco seemed content to be handled by Kristin Zliceski, the store's snake specialist. She said he was getting along well with another ball python -- priced at $79.99 -- in a cage where the temperature was set at a cozy 85 degrees.

"A lot of people have been interested in him, not knowing the story behind him," said Zliceski. "Right now he's just kind of hanging out, being spoiled."

Paco also managed to befriend Teresa Lusto, 4, who squealed when she first encountered the serpent. Teresa softened once she stroked the snake's lustrous skin, as soft as any pair of fancy western boots.

"He's beautiful," she said.