Ida’s washing clothes in the utility room of her 100-year- old farmhouse in Gorham, Maine, just west of Portland, when she gets the surprise of her life.

Ida reaches into the washer after the spin cycle to pull out a clean pair of jeans. Just as she grabs the jeans, something in there MOVES!

Nothing’s supposed to move in the clothes washer once the agitator stops, everybody knows that.

Ida backs away from the washer as "a thing" begins to ease up out of the clean laundry. It was the head of something — she’s not sure what.

"It looked huge," Ida tells a television reporter. Using a broom handle, she carefully closes the lid on the washer, then runs to phone the authorities. She describes what she saw to the cops and animal control, but neither wants anything to do with the "thing."

Finally Richard Burton arrives at Ida’s farmhouse. He’s not the Richard Burton you may be familiar with. Richard owns Maine Animal Damage Control up in Lewiston. He knows what to do.

Burton puts on a pair of welder’s gloves, carefully lifts the lid on the washing machine and grabs the critter below its head. "The thing" turns out to be a reticulated boa constrictor who seems very upset at the way Richard is handling it. The eight foot long boa wraps itself around Richard’s arm, but only for a moment.

Boa constrictors have really nasty curved teeth that are designed to prevent their prey from escaping. Richard manages to avoid the boa’s mouth and quickly stuffs the critter into a heavy plastic bag and ties it shut.

Animal control people guess that the boa was somebody’s pet that grew too big and was discarded in the woods. Somehow, the snake got into water pipes and eventually ended up as part of Ida’s laundry day.

Ida freely admits that she’s on constant guard now and carefully checks every nook and cranny in the farmhouse and especially in the utility room where she keeps the washing machine.