The Bronx Zoo says its escaped King Cobra is almost certainly still on zoo grounds. Don't believe them!, says David Vecsey:
[T]hat’s exactly what zoo officials in Atlanta said last summer, when an adult tiger rattlesnake went missing … right before it was found roughly 100 yards off zoo grounds. What’s worse was that snake was clubbed to death by a Grant Park resident who had no idea that a highly venomous snake was even on the loose until it slithered onto his porch near his toddler son. That prompted this precious quotation from Dwight Lawson, Zoo Atlanta’s deputy director: “Hindsight being 20/20, we probably should’ve knocked on a few doors.”
If I lived in the Bronx, I would have a snake-whacking implement within reach at all times.