A local officer has made a name for himself dealing with snakes around the metroplex.
Officer Stephen Burres III of the Irving Police Department is the department’s resident “snake whisperer,” having dealt with the reptiles many times over the course of his service to the city.
Burres has been an officer with the IPD for over 30 years, according to WFAA. During this period, he has dealt with over 50 calls related to snakes.
The Dallas Express previously reported that Burres had been sent to respond to a report that a large snake was blocking a woman from entering her car in a parking lot. Burres answered the call, capturing a “mighty” python named Ms. Bonnie.
Body cam footage of the event showed the reptile exhibiting an apparent level of comfort as it curled around the officer.
“The dispatcher sent me a message on my computer and said, ‘Are you feeling brave tonight?'” said Burres, according to WFAA.
Burres’ history with snakes apparently extends all the way back to his childhood days. He told WFAA that he had seen hundreds of snakes near his home as a child and had even gone rattlesnake hunting as a kid.
“I just never had a fear of them. I always respected them,” said Burres, according to WFAA.
“I’m part game warden, part trooper, all Irving PD,” said Burres.
Some of Burres’s fellow officers, however, do not share the same sentiment and would prefer to avoid the creatures altogether.
“A snake is a snake is a snake, and that’s a definition of a snake for me,” said fellow IPD officer Robert Reeves, according to WFAA. “They’re good over there and I’m good over here.”
Officer Burres is not the only snake-wrangling police officer in the North Texas region. The Mansfield Police Department recently sent Officer Lynch, another officer with a history of snake handling, to assist a woman who had discovered a rat snake curled up in the sink of her home, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.