The Python from the Ceiling

In 2013, a 3.8-meter African Rock Python escaped its enclosure in a New Brunswick apartment and strangled two young brothers, aged four and six, who were staying there for a sleepover. The snake reportedly traveled through a ventilation duct before falling through the ceiling onto the boys, with experts suggesting it may have been triggered by the scent of farm animals the children had visited earlier that day. Although the owner was charged with criminal negligence, he was ultimately acquitted because the jury determined that the snake’s specific escape route and its behavior in attacking two people were highly rare and unpredictable.