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Authorities Express Doubts About Reports Of Venomous Snake In Kane County

(CBS) -- That snake story we've been reporting - about a supposedly venomous cottonmouth on the loose in Kane County? Now authorities aren't so sure.

There is probably a big snake somewhere in the Geneva area near Mill Creek.

The person who actually saw it near a home, it turns out, tried to take a photo but he couldn't get close enough.

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So he did some Googling and found a photo of a snake that looked very much like the snake he saw in person.

That stock photo was a cottonmouth, not a native of these parts. And now, even less likely to be the snake in Kane County.

"My gut feeling? It's probably going to turn out to be a big water snake," Brad Lundsteen, owner of Suburban Wildlife Control.

In other words, not poisonous.

"There's things that happen. They get bears that come in. They've had cougars come in."

So to be sure, he's setting an elaborate trap for the snake.

But it may take awhile. Since it's been cloudy and cool, the snake may be lying low and not slithering around.

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