CINCINNATI (WAVE) – A trash collector got a big surprise while making his rounds. He found a nearly 6-foot Burmese Python slithering around in a dumpster in the back of a fast food restaurant.

"It was pretty impressive and I was a little surprised and curious who had lost their pet," said Ian Simon, who found the snake. "One of the local sheriffs stops in and taps me on the shoulder and asked if we have a box. I said 'What for?' he said 'We have a big snake out in the parking lot.'"

Hamilton County sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett says deputies who were summoned around 11 a.m. Thursday arrived to find the snake  on the ground with its tail wrapped around a broom belonging to the driver.

Lt. Mike Hartzler identified the snake as a python that was approximately 6 feet long.  He's responsible for getting the snake safely in a box, using the broom.

"Well now I'm glad I watched several episodes of the "Crocodile Hunter," said Hartzler.  "I've handled wild animals before but this guy was rather sluggish. When I got there I asked for cardboard box, I was really concerned about the animal's welfare."

Investigators don't know how the snake got into the dumpster.

"Unfortunately, what happens when people buy animals like this that are wild animals and they become too difficult to care of, so they turn them loose or they put them in the garbage, " Hartzler said.

The snake has been placed in temporary care with Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and is said to be OK.

Copyright WAVE. All rights reserved.