Fort Kent police worry about slithering situation Abandoned pythons keep officials away from house

FORT KENT – There’s no one at home at the residence of Chester Ryan and Jason Buzzell, but the small home has an exotic anti-theft system, especially for northern Maine.

The house is locked, and the two owners have not been seen in two weeks. Still, even the town’s police chief won’t tread near the house, because of the pythonic welcome that awaits intruders there.

Two pythons, 6- to 8-feet long, are reportedly inside the home.

Police Chief Kenneth Michaud, who has an aversion to snakes, doesn’t know what to do.

His recourse may be “1-800-call-Apollo” for the mythical slayer of the enormous serpent that lurked in ancient times in the cave of the 8,600-foot-high Mount Parnassus in central Greece.

“I don’t want to go in there,” Michaud said Tuesday. “I don’t know anything about snakes.

“Buzzell used to raise mice to feed them, but I don’t know what they are eating now,” he said behind the safety of his desk. “They [Ryan and Buzzell] left town, and I am trying to get in touch with one of their in-laws here in town.”

It’s not a common problem for a small-town police force.

Michaud doesn’t know what the herpetological pair are eating, but he wants to make sure it has nothing to do with him.

The pythons are not poisonous but he has no intention of putting them to the test.

Pythons are very large snakes, usually found in Asia, Africa and Australia, that crush their prey to death. Popularly, they are any large snake that crushes its prey.

“I don’t like snakes,” Michaud said. “We will have to do something, but I don’t know what at this point.”

The house, located on the South and North Perley Brook connector road, has been empty for two weeks. The two men who lived there were reportedly from Rochester, N.H.

“We have a summons for Chester Ryan for theft,” Michaud said. “They left town quickly, and the snakes are in the house.”

The two men had been living in the house since last year. They never acquired local citizenship, claiming to live here on and off, and that their home was in New Hampshire.