It was around midnight on May 30, 1996, when Vera Williams first called 911 about an intruder in her house.

It’s been three years, three months, and 26 days since that fateful call and the intruder is still there.

Williams’ intruder is a snake of growing proportions.

&uot;It was May 30, 1996 when he first poked his head through the tile wall in my bedroom,&uot; said Williams, a retired secretary from the Natchez-Adams School District.

Police responded to Williams’ home at 310 Lumber St. and attempted to lure the snake through the wall with no success.

&uot;At first, there were three policemen there,&uot; Williams said, adding that once officers used a stick to try to pull the snake from the wall, they could feel the weight of the snake and knew they had a real fight on their hands.

&uot;They called two more cops,&uot; Williams said. The five officers spent several hours at Williams’ house, but could not wrestle the monster snake from hiding.

Over three years later, Natchez Police Chief Willie Huff still remembers the call.

&uot;We went out and looked,&uot; Huff said. &uot;The problem was there was no way in the attic unless you tore the louvers off the house, so we referred her to a pest control service that sprayed and put mothballs out.&uot;

Both spray and mothballs didn’t phase the big snake.

&uot;Then we suggested that she might put chicken wire up where the snake was getting in, but then if the snake was already in, the chicken wire would keep it in and it would eventually die,&uot; Huff said.

&uot;Snakes in houses aren’t unusual in Natchez,&uot; Huff said.

What makes Williams’ problem more difficult is that her house was built at the turn of the century. It includes spaces in the walls that newer houses don’t – spaces where the snake can easily crawl.

&uot;I’m at a loss,&uot; Huff said. &uot;The house has walls the snake can get down into.&uot;

Natchez Deputy Fire Chief Paul Johnson said he and members of the Fire Department have tried twice to lure the wiley snake from Williams’ house – again, with no success.

&uot;That thing has got to be smart,&uot; Johnson said.

&uot;I’ve been there a couple of times myself. I&160;haven’t seen it. One of the policemen who went out there saw it but didn’t shoot,&uot; Johnson said, adding that policemen have regulations about discharge of their weapons that would have prevented it.

&uot;The policeman that saw it saw its head and said it was big,&uot; Johnson said. And that was over three years ago.

Williams said the snake is large enough to be heard as it slithers its way through crawl spaces within the walls and attic of her house.

&uot;It used to just make this dragging noise as it went over your head in the attic, now the wood ceiling pops under its weight,&uot; Williams said.

Policemen, firefighters and representatives from the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks have all gone in search of the big snake, only to come back humbler and wiser for the attempt.

Williams has spent $1,700 in several vain attempts to run the snake from her house – including packing her attic full of mothballs and putting a big trap under her house. Each time, the big snake just slithers on by.

The emotional and financial drain on Williams has been tremendous.

&uot;My energy is just gone. He sleeps right over my head,&uot; Williams said. &uot;Only the grace of God has saved me from insanity over this,&uot; she said.

Williams sleeps with her television set on and the volume up to drown out the sounds of the giant snake moving in the house.

&uot;You can’t imagine being in the bathtub and have him bumping you in the tail from underneath,&uot; she said.

Williams’ tub sits in a floor crawl space that the snake frequently visits.

Now Williams has pinned her hopes on a trap made for her by a zoologist at a zoo in Alexandria, La.

&uot;The trap doesn’t kill the snake, it holds it,&uot; she said. The zoo has asked to keep the snake once it is trapped.

&uot;They can have him,&uot; Williams said. &uot;I just don’t want to see him.&uot;