Dave Lawrence was on his way to a store in downtown Fredericton when he came across a curious scene.
A man was bent on the sidewalk, frantically grabbing what looked like dozens of small snakes, using a tree branch to scoop them into a small red bucket.
“I saw what I was thinking about a snake, because in one of the pictures I posted, it’s standing,” Lawrence said. “Then I looked a little to the left, rather at the entrance to the Hilltop restaurant, and saw what looked like two dozen of them.”
Lawrence is a morning radio presenter for one of the city’s private radio stations. He also has a serious phobia of snakes. In fact, so heavy, he said, once he saw only the tail of a snake in a zoo and the next thing he realized he had been awakened by paramedics.
I hate walking down a busy street and dropping my box of snakes. CARNICA. pic.twitter.com/oiRJUGaIjI
– @ RayDoesData
In this case, Lawrence took a few pictures and immediately left the situation of the obvious snake fighter in place.
“THERE IS A GIRL ON PROSPECT STREET, WHO TAKES A SHOCK OF FOLDING SNAKES!?!?!?! Lawrence posted on Facebook, attaching four photos of the man desperately trying to deal with the creatures.
The Snake Man quickly became a hot topic online, with hundreds of locals joining in with their theories about what exactly was going on in his photos.
Many have suggested that these snakes may not actually be reptiles. They may be eels.
The plot thickened. How did these eels end up fighting for an expensive life on a hot sidewalk? And why were there so many of them?
Alicia Sovajo also encountered slippery “snakes” on her way to work.
“I got off the bus and got on them,” Sovajo said. “Even the bus driver slowed down a bit and watched.”
But she noticed that a man was taking action.
With a jug full of eels, Purazam took a step toward Morel Park and released them all into the St. John River. (Submitted by Dave Lawrence)
“There was a taxi driver parked there for a while,” Sovajo said. He started to take them.
It turns out that the driver is Jahandar Purazam and he is the only one who saw what happened.
He was sitting in his cab in the Shoppers Drug parking lot on Prospect Street, waiting for his next taxi.
“One pickup truck was carrying two containers of, I think it was water,” Purazam said.
He estimated that these containers were about 500 liters each, but the lid of one was open.
Taxi driver Jahandar Purazam worked frantically to save eels from a hot sidewalk on Monday. (Shane Fowler / CBC News)
When the truck hits the curb awkwardly, a lot of water splashes on the sidewalk.
“I suddenly realized that something was moving,” Purazam said. “[I went] “Oh, what is this?” Are these snakes?
“I approached and saw no, they are eels,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do at the time.”
Purazam ran back to his cabin, grabbed the small container he usually used for road salt, and filled it with water from his bottle.
Worried not to use his bare hands, Purazam uses twigs and leaves to pick up the writhing eels and drop them back into the water.
He said he was able to recover each of them, although he believes two or three have been in serious condition since they fell from the truck.
With a jug full of eels, Purazam took a step toward Morel Park and released them all into the St. John River.
I’m just trying to help
He says the vehicle from which the eels were thrown is unmarked, noting only Ford. He has no idea who was transporting a truck with eels or why.
“Maybe for research, maybe for food?” I do not know.
Purazam said he also had no idea that his photos of him rescuing these eels had been widely circulated on the Internet or that he had been called a “man with snakes.”
He says he was just trying to help.
“It’s normal,” Purazam said. “When you see an animal suffering, you can’t just see it suffering, you go to help it.”
He says it doesn’t matter if they were snakes or eels.
“I like every kind of life,” Purazam said.
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