About 40 snakes were dumped in a Walmart parking lot in Paragould, Arkansas, by an unknown culprit Sunday night.
Witnesses initially posted warnings on Facebook telling others to avoid the parking lot because the snakes might be venomous, UPI reported.
Paragould Detective Jack Hailey said the snakes were initially thought to be venomous copperheads and water moccasins, but were later determined to be harmless garden snakes, according to KAIT.
Hailey felt the snakes were collected purposely to be dumped in the lot.
“They were either herding the snakes when they were frog gigging or something,” Haily said, KAIT reported. “Either way, they were collecting them for this reason and I don’t think that was the best thing to do at all. Especially, those out there with a phobia.”
No one was injured during the incident, but Hailey said “it could cause a panic with people trying to get away,” KAIT reported.
No one is going to be charged with a criminal offense in this case, but Hailey said if someone is caught doing this in the future, he or she could definitely be charged.
“At the minimum, you could look at disorderly conduct of causing alarm to a public place, but if you look at the bigger picture, if someone was trying to get away from them and got hurt in any sort of way, those charges could easily increase,” he said, KAIT reported.
Twitter quickly turned the Walmart parking lot snakes into a commentary on the U.S. Congress.