TX Firefighters Rescue Child from Snakes

An 11-year-old Southlake girl came face-to-face with a snake and had to be rescued by police on Wednesday.

Southlake police revealed the "harrowing" tale in a series of social media posts on Twitter.

Tori, 11, crawled into a drainage pipe while playing outside with sister Carly, 13. When she turned around to crawl back out, she noticed a black snake in her path. She tried another route but was confronted by another snake.

Tori felt trapped. She was under a drainage grate unsure if these were friendly snakes. Carly suggested "just close your eyes and crawl under it before mom finds out," the police recounted.

This only intensified Tori's fear as she burst into tears. Her only conclusion: confess to mom and get help.

"Carly then high-tailed it in the house, leaving poor Tori alone with the company of some new friendsssssssssss," Southlake police posted, giving the word friends some snake-related embellishment. "The decision had been made that the snakes were scarier than mom's wrath."

Mom, however, couldn't lift the drainage grate. Tori again declined to crawl past the snakes. So mom called the Southlake Police and Fire Departments.

"We were there in minutes and after about 90 seconds, we got the grate off," Southlake police said.

Tori was rescued unharmed. The police department wanted to make sure the harmless rat snakes were unharmed as well.

"Before all of you Snake People jump in and say we're vilifying snakes, WE ARE NOT," Southlake police posted. "We are telling this from the perspective of a (11-year-old) young lady who didn't have her snake identifier page on Facebook handy and was crammed in a tight space, so calm down."

The police applauded the girls for getting out and exploring nature, even if Tori broke mom's rule about crawling in pipes.

"We've got some good old-fashioned amazing pre-teens here, thrilled to explore the outdoors and see nature instead of TikToking or vegging on the couch watching MrBeast on YouTube."

"We know now they were rat snakes, but imagine for a second, poor Tori feeling like she was in the snake pit of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' the first movie of the Indiana Jones trilogy," the police added, including a jab at the critically-panned fourth film in the series. "Yeah we said it. 'Crystal Skull' doesn't count."

This story was originally published January 20, 2022 2:29 PM.