The Snake in the Mailbox - 1978-10-23

Attorney Paul Morantz unlocked the door of his house in Los Angeles last week and put his left hand into the mailbox. "I felt a sharp pain, and then it felt as though my hand was in a vise," he recalls. When he pulled his hand back, he brought with it a 4½-ft. diamondback rattlesnake, its fangs buried near his left thumb. He managed to shake off the snake and ran screaming to a neighbor, who applied a tourniquet that saved Morantz from almost certain death. Fire department paramedics chopped off the snake's head with a shovel, and discovered that the rattles had been removed so that the snake could attack without warning.
Wikipedia cite:
{{cite news | title = The Snake in the Mailbox | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946091,00.html | work = Time magazine | date = October 23, 1978 | accessdate = May 22, 2019 }}