Trash is shown stacked against the home of William Buchman Wednesday Jan. 29, 2014 in Santa Ana, Calif.SANTA ANA, Calif. – A California schoolteacher was arrested Wednesday after hundreds of living and dead pythons in plastic bins were found stacked floor to ceiling inside his stench-filled home in suburban Orange County.
As investigators wearing respirator masks carried the reptiles out of the house and stacked them in the driveway, reporters and passers-by gagged at the smell. Some held their noses or walked away from the five-bedroom home to get a breath of air.
“The smell alone — I feel like I need to take a shower for a week,” said police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. “They’re pretty much in all the bedrooms — everywhere.”
Officers found as many as 350 snakes, as well as numerous mice and rats, in the Santa Ana home of William Buchman after neighbors complained about the smell. He was arrested for investigation of neglect in the care of animals, Bertagna said.
Buchman, 53, was still in custody Wednesday afternoon, Bertagna said. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District, where he works, declined comment, saying it was a police matter.