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Woman wrangles loose snake at Arizona wedding

By
Published  May 9, 2024 5:48pm MST
Wild Nature
FOX 10 Phoenix

FLORENCE, Ariz. - It's a wedding that many will never forget – not because of the bride and groom – but because of an unwanted guest.

A snake crashed an Arizona wedding, and a video of a woman taking action is going viral.

Meet Erika Rodriguez. You can call her the snake wrangler, but Wonder Woman is also appropriate.

Her sister was getting married in Florence on Cinco de Mayo when the unwanted guest showed up on some steps.

Erika says that growing up, her favorite show was "The Crocodile Hunter," so she saw Steve Irwin handle a lot of snakes.

She's just over five feet tall, and that snake was about the same length. It turned out to be a harmless gopher snake.

Erika's other sister, Sandra, posted the video on TikTok, and it quickly got more than a million views. Erika, who's married, has even been proposed to in the comment section of the video. 

"The snake kept making appearances in the little cocktail area. The worker had tried to catch him, but he flipped onto the steps and the deck right there. He came out again," she recalled.

Erika says there was an employee at the venue who conveniently disappeared, and that's why she took action.

The snake was released in a safe spot and Erika was rewarded with a beer at the wedding's open bar.

"As a kid, I was very tom boyish, so I was outside catching grasshoppers and toads and snakes and whatever I could," Erika said. "Thank you, Steve Irwin."

Her sister Sandra wasn't surprised.

"It's not surprising with Erika. It's just always been who she is. She loves animals. She's always been adventurous," Sandra said. "She is not afraid of anything literally."