It was supposed to be a quiet Sunday morning. The sun had just begun to rise over the sleepy neighborhood, birds chirped outside, and everything seemed perfectly normal in the Nguyen family home — until a scream shattered the peace.
“There’s a snake in the toilet!”
The shriek came from Anna Nguyen, a teenager who had just gone to the bathroom as part of her morning routine. What she saw was not a trick of the eye or a prank — the unmistakable tail of a snake was poking out from the inner rim of the toilet bowl. It flicked ever so slightly, confirming that it was alive.
Shock and Panic
Within seconds, the entire family gathered outside the bathroom, peeking in from a safe distance. Anna’s father, Mr. Nguyen, tried to calm everyone down, but even he was rattled. Seeing a live snake in your toilet is not something anyone is prepared for.
“Don’t flush it!” yelled Anna’s younger brother, Leo, from the hallway. “What if it swims up into the pipes again?!”
Good point.
The initial instinct was to call animal control. But being in a suburban area where wildlife services were often overwhelmed, the family was told the soonest help could arrive was in several hours. By then, who knows where the snake might slither off to?
The Unexpected Hero
That’s when Mr. Nguyen decided he had to take matters into his own hands.
“I’m going in,” he declared, holding up a pair of worn locking pliers — the kind he used for fixing leaky pipes or stubborn bolts in his garage workshop.
“You’re going to grab a snake with that?” his wife asked, alarmed.
“Do you have a better idea?”
No one did.
After donning heavy-duty gloves, thick jeans, and even stuffing socks around his ankles for good measure, Mr. Nguyen approached the toilet like a soldier heading into battle. Armed with his locking pliers, he leaned forward slowly, flashlight in one hand, gripping tool in the other.
Credit: https://www.tiktok.com/@hermelindamenchac5/video/7521214560460606734
