Someone Donated a Giant, Terrifying Python to Goodwill

Goodwill employees are basically junk archeologists, constantly digging through mountains of donations to unearth something worth selling. Every now and then, amid all the clothes and used electronics and disgusting old pairs of underwear, they find something truly incredible: First, there was that Goodwill in Washington that randomly found four pounds of weed, and then the Florida store that thought someone donated a loaded grenade launcher. It looks like a Goodwill in Texas just became the latest store to find something deeply unexpected in their donation bin—but this time, it was a giant goddamn python.

An employee at one location in Fort Worth was sorting through new donations when she uncovered the massive, albino serpent dangling out of a donation bin, NBC affiliate KXAS reports. As one does in situations like these, the employee, Tassy Rodgers, immediately freaked out and ran to assistant manager James Murphy's office for help. Weirdly enough, it turns out Murphy is exactly the right guy to call when you accidentally find yourself face-to-face with a massive snake.

According to KXAS, Murphy has owned his fair share of snakes, and knows how to handle exotic animals, so he just sprang right into action.

"With pythons, they’re very strong and they are constrictors. So if he didn’t want to let go of that bin, it would have been hard to get him off without hurting him," Murphy later explained to KXAS, like the python whisperer he is. "So, we tried to coax him to start slithering, to relax his muscles, and that’s when I started holding him. Eventually he relaxed enough for me to get him in that bin."

Once they had the python contained and mellowed out, a few major questions remained. Namely: Where the hell did that python come from? And what should they do with it now?

"I just don’t know what the context is of how this snake got to us," Murphy said. "I don’t know if someone may have [donated it] maliciously… Maybe they wanted to get rid of it and weren’t quite sure how, or maybe it just wanted to get warm. It was in a pile of clothing."

For now, Murphy and his staff are taking care of the snake, hoping that its original owners come forward, on the off-chance that the pet got donated by accident and they're currently out there nailing "Lost: Big-Ass Scary Python" flyers to signposts across Fort Worth. It's unclear what'll happen to the thing if no one comes forward to claim it, but seeing as how Murphy is apparently some kind of thrift-store Doctor Doolittle, he'll presumably make sure the snake winds up with a nice life surrounded by comfy piles of clothing regardless.

Update (11/5): The snake's name is Toki, and he's been reunited with his owner. Way to go, James Murphy. Way to go.

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