Bucks woman, 73, kills cobra on her patio with a shovel

A 73-year-old woman grabbed a shovel and killed a cobra she saw slithering on the patio of her Fairless Hills apartment.

Kathy Kehoe, a great-grandmother, told Philadelphia TV stations that the squawking of blue jays outside caught her attention on Monday. She looked out her door and saw a snake.

"I saw the spot on its back and kind of nudged its tail and it came up and spread its hood and I said, ‘That’s a cobra,’ " Kehoe told 6ABC.

After taking some photos, she grabbed a shovel and “did the deed,” she said.

The apartment complex is the same one where in March officials removed 20 venomous snakes from one residence. Officials said they are not sure whether the cobra, which was 4 to 5 feet long, was an escaped member of that menagerie, but Kehoe said she suspects it was.

Wildlife officials say people should not do what Kehoe did. They say to call the police and let experts handle it.