The skin’s placement could be a
hoax—or evidence of “Wessie,” a supposedly massive snake that recently has
grown into a local legend.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY WESTBOOK POLCE
PUBLISHED AUGUST 31, 2016
A snakeskin found on a
picturesque riverbank in the northeast United States belongs to an anaconda—the
latest twist in the baffling story of “Wessie,” a supposedly enormous snake
that has become a local legend in the town of Westbrook, Maine.
Sightings of the snake began in
June, when a woman filed a report with the Westbrook police department claiming
to have seen a snake as large as a truck, with a head the size of a basketball.
Soon thereafter, a late-shift
police officer patrolling near the first sighting saw a large snake eating a
mammal, possibly a beaver. And on August 20, a man walking along the
Presumpscot River stumbled
across the molted skin of a 12-foot-long snake, near
the other two sightings.
With each sighting, the mystery
deepened—and the
local community’s fascination with its strange new mascot grew.
Clothing stores began selling Wessie-themed shirts. One local brewery even
made a
special-edition beer in honor of the snake.
“It’s kind of picked up steam
with each sighting, and the social media thing has been big,” says Westbrook
Police Captain Sean
Lally. “A lot of people have taken it as a lighthearted thing—kind
of like our Loch Ness monster.”
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