INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A 2-foot-long false water cobra snake caused a stir this week when it was packed for St. Edward’s School and shipped in an unmarked container through the United Parcel Service.

A teacher at the school, Alexander Moir, said he ordered the reptile, which experts said is venomous but not dangerous to people, from a Chester, Va., pet store.

UPS officials said an incorrect ZIP code on the box sent it to the shipping company’s Pinellas Park location. When Moir called to check on the delivery of the package, UPS officials learned there was a live snake inside.

UPS contacted state wildlife officials, who contacted Vernon Yates, owner of the Wildlife Rescue and Rehab in Seminole, to retrieve the snake.

“The box should have been marked,” Yates said. “A school kid could have opened the box not knowing what was inside.”

Moir said the snake was supposed to be sent to his home, not to the school.

However, the package was addressed to St. Edward’s Drive, said Yates, who still had the box Friday. Video of the box in a report by WTSP-TV in Tampa showed the St. Edward’s name on the package label.

Moir said the snake is for his personal collection and has nothing to do with the school.

“This is a perfectly legal snake,” he said.

School officials said they did not know anything about the snake delivery.

They said they talked with Moir about the incident Friday. St. Edward’s School spokeswoman Elizabeth Thomason described the incident as a misunderstanding.

“The school did not order a snake, and no snake was delivered here,” Thomason said.

UPS allows customers to ship some live animals, but prohibits the shipping of any snakes, according to spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg. UPS officials are conducting an internal investigation about the matter. Staff at the Virginia pet store, Off the Ark, declined to comment Friday.

lamaur.stancil@scripps.com; colleen.wixon@scripps.com

ABOUT FALSE WATER COBRA SNAKES

The South American snake bears the distinction of being a snake with a powerful venom but is not considered dangerous to humans, said Bruce Dangerfield, animal control officer for the Vero Beach Police Department.

Dangerfield described the reptile as a rear-fanged snake, which means its venom would not impact a person who is bitten. Rather, the fangs would inject venom into smaller prey as it is being swallowed.

Florida requires permits for anyone who keeps a dangerous snake, but the false water snake is not on the list.

The snakes can grow up to 6 feet long and have a striped color scheme that can be black, yellow, brown or olive.

VERO BEACH — A 25-year-old New York woman faces seven driving-related charges, including child endangerment, after eluding law enforcement at high speeds for 10 miles on Interstate 95 early Tuesday afternoon, reports show.

Maria “Zion Christ” Roberts drove her white van in excess of 110 mph from northern St. Lucie County to Indian River County while going in and out of traffic and attempting U-turns.

Four miles south of Sebastian she crossed the median and sped north in the southbound lanes for several miles before sheriff’s deputies finally were able to puncture one of her tires and the car slammed into a guardrail.
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MARTIN COUNTY — A nude man covered in feces broke into someone’s backyard and jumped into the pool Saturday, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office report.

Robert Stark Higgins, 21, of the 5300 block of Southeast Dell Street, Stuart, was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor theft. He was being held at the Martin County Jail in lieu of $10,500 bail.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A cow fell on a man at a dairy farm early Friday, sending him to a local provisional trauma center via helicopter after the apparent milking-related incident, a St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman said.

Fire District crews responded at 3:56 a.m. to the incident in the 16000 block of Okeechobee Road, Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Alfredo Felipe opened his new barber shop in Port St. Lucie because he liked the hometown feel of the community.

Felipe, 33, never thought that a month after his grand opening, an odd theft would occur at his business, Fredo’s Barbershop Hair Trends International, 698 Southwest Port St. Lucie Blvd.

Felipe said his homemade, 7-foot barber pole, made out of Styrofoam, mesh, stucco and some light metal materials, was stolen between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Friday at his shop.
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BOCA RATON — For more than three hours it floated above homes in Boca Raton: a neon-green light that no one could explain.

“It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Mark Smith, 19.

Smith and his friends went outside about 9 p.m. Monday where they saw it: a glowing object about the size of a football. Smith said it was oblong and hovered about 200 or 300 feet in the air above a neighbor’s home in the Palm Beach Farms neighborhood. The skies were clear. There was no wind. They called police and followed it around.

A Boca Raton police officer actually drove out to see what was the fuss. The results? (more…)

A Fort Pierce woman that was arrested and charged with numerous counts of animal cruelty may have stabbed one of her dead dogs.

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Deputies found a sick home full of animals, some dead and starving, with an odor of death reeking from it when they arrived on the scene Monday.

Deputies arrived at the home on North Kings Highway after the landlord of the home noticed a foul smell coming from it. The landlord also said he hadn’t seen his tenant, Michele Nunziata, in several days.

Deputies on scene said they were met with “an overwhelming foul odor of decomposition.” They also said they could hear several dogs barking from inside the home.

As deputies tried to get Nunziata to come back to the home and allow them inside, she repeatedly told deputies over the phone that she was “too busy.” When she did arrive home and let deputies inside she admitted to burying dogs in her front yard, though deputies could not find grave sites.

When Animal Control Officers arrived they took inventory of the home and found:

3 very slim Pit Bulls

A Blood Hound suffering from malnutrition

2 Cockatiels without food or water

2 ferrets without food or water

1 Black Wolf and 1 Doberman Pincher locked in a kennel laying in feces with no food or water, suffering from malnutrition

3 dead dogs locked in a kennel, decaying

Deputies and Animal Control Officers also found rabbits caged without food or water and a goose.

Nunziata has been charged with 6 felony accounts of animal cruelty as well as 11 Misdemeanors.

In a follow-up report, Animal Care and Control Officers say it appeared one of the deceased dogs left to rot in a cage had been stabbed in it’s armpit.

Officers said it appeared that most of the dead animals died of neglect.

Nunziata told officers she never neglected her animals and “would get them all back.”

Marianne Wellendorf
WPEC Channel 12

Michele Nunziata

So on Monday night, Michele Nunziata’s landlord called the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and reported his concerns.

When investigators showed up at the home in the 900 block of North Kings Highway, they found a grim scene.

Three dead dogs locked up in kennels. A black wolf locked up in feces and starving. A Doberman pinscher in the same condition.

There were other animals. Three skinny pit bulls running loose in the house. A bloodhound reported to be malnourished, two cockatiels and two ferrets – all without sufficient food – and a chinchilla with food and water.

Investigators also found veterinary medicine and piles of feces scattered on the dining room floor.

Nunziata, 40, was booked into the St. Lucie County jail on Monday and is being detained in lieu of $42,500 bail. She faces 16 counts of animal abuse charges and one charge of having the wolf without a permit.

Nunziata told investigators that she had put down the dogs on Saturday and had been too distraught to remove their bodies.

The malnurished bloodhound reportedly removed from Nunziata's home.

She said she had received the euthanasia from her landlord, who had called to tell her that the syringes where in her mailbox ready for use by saying in code, “The snowman had arrived.” (more…)

JENSEN BEACH — A man was charged Saturday evening with domestic battery after he drenched his wife with a garden hose and attacked her, according to an affidavit released Monday.

The altercation began when the victim entered the couple’s residence in the 1400 block of Northeast Chardon Street, while smoking a cigarette.

The affidavit says the victim’s husband, John Jeffrey Murray, 51, began yelling at her about smoking in the house and sprayed her with the hose.
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VERO BEACH — A 25-year-old man rolled his father’s BMW into the Indian River Lagoon and then jumped 60 feet into the water from the Merrill Barber Bridge — all as a lark, police say.

Charges haven’t been filed in the 2:30 a.m. Monday incident. But George Peniston of the 100 block of Terrapin Point could face legal consequences, said police spokesman Officer John Morrison.

Jumping off a bridge could be considered disorderly conduct punishable by six months in jail.
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