Feb 16, 2009 9:00 am US/Eastern
Florida Man Sues Wal-Mart Over Snake Bite
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (CBS) ―
A South Florida man who was bitten by a snake while shopping at a Wal-Mart in Pembroke Pines has filed suit against the company, reports CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.
Jay Richitelli, 42, was bitten in the right hand while in the garden center of the Wal-Mart, located in the 100 block of Southwest 18th Avenue, on July 6th 2008. Richitelli believes the snake was a pygmy rattler. Richitelli was taken to Memorial Hospital Miramar where he was given anti-venin as a precaution.
If it was a pygmy rattle snake, Richitelli would be the third Floridian in three years to be attacked in a Wal-Mart by that particular species of snake. Two others were bitten in 2006 at the retailer's stores in Central Florida.
Bites from pygmy rattle snakes, while extremely painful, are rarely deadly. Pygmy rattlers are one of six venomous snakes in Florida.
In his suit filed in Broward Circuit Court, Richitelli's attorney claims the Arkansas-based company should have taken steps to prevent the attacks after they happened before. Richitelli says he still has respiratory problems and scars from the 2008 bite. But he's been back to Wal-Mart several times, saying their prices are too good to shop elsewhere.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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