GOLD CANYON, Ariz. (KNXV/CNN) – A retired Phoenix police officer traded catching criminals for catching rattlesnakes, but his recent find in Gold Canyon, Arizona, is a real surprise.
Phil Roberts did not get physically bitten by a snake, but metaphorically speaking, he got infected with the love of capturing snakes.
He has caught and released more than 85 rattlesnakes over the past year.
All this comes after his crosshairs were aimed at a different kind of threat in the Phoenix Police Department’s Violent Crimes Bureau for more than 30 years.
“After 33 years in the department, I wanted to do something a little bit more safer than being a police officer, so I became a rattlesnake wrangler,” Roberts said.
This is what retirement looks like for Roberts: taking calls from friends and neighbors in the Gold Canyon area, removing rattlesnakes for free.
“I appreciate neighbors looking after neighbors,” he said.
One of those neighbors at first thought the white snake was a walking stick. Good thing they didn’t reach for it and instead reached out to Phil.
“…This is so rare you wouldn’t believe it,” he said.
Roberts posted about this capture on social media.
Bryan Hughes of Rattlesnake Solutions, the largest snake relocation and prevention business in the U.S., said that the reptile community collectively lost their minds when they saw it.
“Whenever we get an interesting animal, our inbox just goes nuts with people wanting it,” Hughes said.
More testing needs to be done to determine what kind of snake this is, but Hughes said initial research led him to believe it is a tyrosinase-positive albino snake, exceedingly rare in the wild but more common in the pet trade.
Of the 24,000 rattlesnakes he has relocated in more than 20 years, Hughes has come across a snake like this in the wild only twice.
“I’d never expect to see something like this in my life,” he said.
Rattlesnake Solutions will continue to research this discovery to determine the best future for this rare snake, but looking at the snake closely, Hughes made another discovery: the snake is pregnant.
If you spot a rattlesnake, experts say don’t try to catch or kill it; just keep your distance, watch where it goes and call a professional for help.
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