He Tried to Open Door. Then, a White Flash and Screaming

Footage from a doorbell camera on a porch in Lawton, Okla., is circulating, and USA Today reports that Jerel Heywood is the unfortunate star. CNN reports Heywood went to visit his friend Rodney Copeland on Sunday, and the video shows what happened as he tried to enter Copeland's home. As Heywood pulls open the screen door, suddenly, in the upper-left side of the frame, a white flash appears, lashes out at Heywood's head, and sends Heywood reeling backward and yelling, his hand over his right eye. That white flash, per CNN: A snake that had curled itself around a porch light.

Copeland says his friend careened into the house shouting, and Copeland and his wife rushed Heywood to the hospital. Before they left, though, Copeland killed the snake with a hammer brought over by a neighbor who'd heard all the ruckus. Luckily, the bull snake wasn't poisonous, and Heywood's injuries were minor. "No stitches, thankfully," he says, though he's taking antibiotics as a precaution. USA Today notes the National Weather Service has recently issued flood watches around the Sooner State, and Copeland tells CNN that may have spurred the snake to seek shelter on his porch. He plans on spraying sulfuric acid around his home now to keep any other slitherers at bay. (More snake attack stories.)