Author: CNN Newsource

By Nicholas Gallo

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    NEW MEXICO (KOAT) — Irish ultra-cyclist Joe Barr has completed a 2,400-mile journey along Route 66 in 10 days, six hours, and 27 minutes, with the time submitted for Guinness World Record ratification.

“It’s been the journey of a lifetime,” Barr said.

The ride concluded in Chicago the day before Barr’s 67th birthday, marking the end of a challenging yet rewarding experience.

“The second last day, whenever the weather turned into that storm process in Illinois and the tornadoes hit,” Barr said, describing one of the obstacles he faced.

He also recounted the extreme heat and headwinds in New Mexico.

“There was a point in the race actually when I was crossing, it was in New Mexico when I was crossing the Great Divide, we had a day where the heat was incredible. It was like 108 degrees, and there was a direct headwind all the way,” he said.

Wildlife posed additional challenges during the nighttime in Texas.

“In Texas in the nighttime, there was a huge amount of rattlesnakes that come out onto the road. And we had to use the team cars to segregate the snake so that we could get all the team cars through and I could get through safely,” Barr said.

Despite the difficulties, Barr found moments of beauty along the way.

“I remember in Navajo, we came across a lot of wild horses, and they were on the left side of the road,” he said. “The whole troop of horses crossed across, and we got it on camera where they just continually ran beside me for ages.”

Barr was also motivated by the people he met during his journey.

“There was a police officer with the direct follow car. You instantly think, oh, what have we done wrong here? But it was the complete opposite,” he said. “He actually gave me one of the police challenge coins and the certificate to go with it.”

He recalled a memorable moment in Joplin, Missouri.

“The whole team came with all these huge foil trays where someone had come and fed the whole team. The ice cream shop supplied them all ice cream,” Barr said.

Reflecting on the ride, Barr said it was about more than setting a record.

“I felt that I was traveling a journey that almost demanded me to leave a little bit of myself so I could become part of what that historic journey was,” he said.

“In the Route 66, I have this little grain of sand of history that I can be proud of,” Barr said, adding that his journey coincided with the centennial year of the iconic Mother Road.

Barr’s journey was documented by a film crew, and they plan to release a movie about the experience later this year.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Eric Graves

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — Hundreds of thousands of people in Kansas City for FIFA World Cup matches, watch parties, and more means a lot of fun but also the potential for a lot of waste.

With pre-prepared meals in Arrowhead Stadium suites, FIFA Fan Fest parties, and even player meals at team hotels, leftover food can lead to filled dumpsters.

“A third of all food that’s produced in the U.S. gets wasted,” said Tamara Weber.

That’s part of the reason she created Pete’s Garden, a food-recovery nonprofit.

“We work with the food service sector, so that means restaurants, caterers, food service operations, anyone that’s preparing food in bulk, and a lot of times there’s surplus food that is perfectly good to eat, but it was just more than what was needed for the number of people that attended the event,” Weber said. “We’re able to bring that food back to our kitchen here, where our volunteers are portioning and packaging it into take-home family dinners.”

Pete’s Garden works with more than 20 partners year-round, including restaurants, convention centers and sports teams like the Chiefs, Sporting KC and the KC Current.

Volunteers with Pete’s Garden pick up the food and bring it back to Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City.

In the church’s basement, a team of volunteers places the food in a walk-in freezer until it’s ready to be repackaged.

“When food comes in, it gets weighed and labeled, so we know what all these items are,” Weber said. “This is all food that is stored in our walk-in cooler waiting for volunteers to pack. So, on Monday mornings especially, this walk-in is completely full with food from weekend events.”

From the freezer, more volunteers repackage the food into meal containers for local families.

“It’s whole food,” Weber said. “It is real food, made from scratch. So then we have volunteers who will take the food that comes in and portion and package it into these take-home family dinners.”

Weber said Pete’s Garden then works with other organizations that distribute the food to families in need.

“We work with organizations like Operation Breakthrough Boys and Girls Club,” she said. “These are organizations that are already providing a host of services to families. Our meal is one additional benefit.”

Since starting in 2020, Pete’s Garden has helped thousands of families across the metro.

“This year we will recover about 260,000 pounds of food, which doesn’t really mean anything until I put it in terms of a thousand families a week take home a complete family dinner at least once a week,” Weber said.

Their operations grew even larger in June and July due to the World Cup. Pete’s Garden is working with KC2026 to pick up food from Arrowhead Stadium, FIFA Fan Fest and even team hotels.

“We are expecting to distribute about 10,000 additional meals over the course of June and July during the FIFA period, and at this point, we’re on pace to hit that,” Weber said.

It’s created some funny situations for the Pete’s Garden team, like when untouched food from KC’s base camp teams shows up at their doors.

“We’ve been picking up food from the Argentina hotel,” Weber said. “That’s been fun. Although we did not get any birthday cake from Lionel Messi’s birthday. We were looking for it. But, you know, that’s been fun because our volunteers get to see, ‘Oh, this is what the Argentinian team ate last night for dinner.'”

Ultimately, it’s feeding families in need in Kansas City, but it’s also giving families the extra time to sit down and have a nice family meal.

“Our free take-home dinners allow the family extra time to connect over a nice meal,” Weber said.

Pete’s Garden is always looking for more restaurants to work with across Kansas City; you can find out more information on their website.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Ella Wales

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    NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — Sports agents in Louisiana will now have to register with the state Department of Justice’s public protection division. An online registration portal launched on Wednesday.

The portal comes after a state law went into effect in June. The process to get registered includes training, paying a fee and passing a background check.

It’s all meant to keep young student-athletes from falling in with unlicensed agents, as name, image and likeness continues to change the landscape of college and high school sports.

Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the launch of the new portal at a press conference Wednesday morning.

“I commend the attorney general for doing this because it has literally turned into the wild, wild West,” Alvianne Brule said.

Brule is a certified NFL sports agent and student-athlete advocate. She said she has seen student-athletes be taken advantage of, or sign a contract they don’t fully understand.

“This student athlete signed an agreement that went beyond his collegiate eligibility, which basically put his NCAA eligibility at risk, so there was a lot he had to go through and was almost ruled ineligible because of that contract he agreed to,” she said.

The new process to become a registered agent in Louisiana will be similar to what NFL agents have to go through.

Former Saints player turned agent Lance Moore said it’s a great step.

“Why would there not be a similar process or at least a registration process for the state to be able to do such things like background checks, and make sure that the people who are registering are who they say they are, and looking out for the best interest of the athletes,” he said.

According to the state, 427 Louisiana athletes conducted NIL deals that totaled $17 million during the 2024-25 school year.

That number is only expected to grow, as even high schoolers are signing NIL deals.

Attorneys at Davillier Law Group look over NIL contracts for athletes.

“I definitely think that from our role, more regulations kind of controlling the industry is a positive for students and their parents,” Dominique Davillier said.

Davillier said parents and students can often miss red flags in contracts that are hidden by legal jargon.

“There’s a lot of terms I think that parents should be especially paying attention to. Exclusivity is a really big one; also matching the term date with the end of the season that the student athlete is playing in, I think those are some big traps that student athletes, we’ve seen fall into,” she said.

Any athlete agent already operating in Louisiana must be registered under the new system no later than Aug. 1, 2026.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Rachel Whelan

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    FLORENCE, Kentucky (WLWT) — When Tom O’Connell was 9 years old, a stroke left him without the use of the right side of his body.

Most people, he says, would see that as one of the worst days of their lives.

O’Connell sees it differently.

“Most people would consider that a bummer, but I didn’t,” he said. “I considered it a goldmine.”

That perspective became the foundation of his memoir, “Cherish the Challenge,” a 305-page book he spent four years writing one keystroke at a time.

The stroke forced him to relearn how to walk, talk and write. While he never regained the use of the right side of his body, he never allowed the stroke to define the rest of his life.

Instead, O’Connell built a career as an accountant, married his wife, raised two children and is now a proud grandfather.

His memoir reflects on those experiences, sharing stories from his childhood, the love and support of his family and the lessons he learned along the way.

Writing the book was no small task.

Because he only has the use of his left hand, O’Connell typed all 305 pages, 25 chapters and nearly 100,000 words using a single finger.

“I had to write it just using one finger of this hand because I didn’t have any use of this hand,” he said.

For O’Connell, however, the accomplishment isn’t simply finishing a book. It’s sharing the outlook that has guided him since childhood.

“I’d like people to get out of it that nothing is impossible and that nothing is that bad,” he said. “People who are kind of sad … will read this book and say, ‘It’s not that bad.'”

O’Connell hopes “Cherish the Challenge” encourages readers to look beyond their hardships and appreciate the opportunities that can come from them.

“Cherish the Challenge” is available at Barnes & Noble in Florence and through online retailers.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jordan Ryan

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Oklahoma City firefighters are preparing to use new tools and training to better assist autistic individuals during emergencies, an initiative supported by local partnerships.

Lt. Ryan Woodard of the Oklahoma City Fire Department highlighted the challenges faced by families with special needs during crisis situations.

There are a lot of these families that are just hanging on by their fingernails, you know, trying to get through every day. You have elderly people taking care of adults with all kinds of different special needs. We just need to make sure that we take good care of this population because they’re just trying to get through every day,” Woodard said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 31 children nationally is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, meaning firefighters often encounter patients on the spectrum during calls.

“It can either be that the driver is autistic or the passenger is autistic,” Woodard said.

To address these situations, firefighters will soon have access to communication cards available in both English and Spanish.

“When they’re stressed, we can offer them a communication card. And these are available in both English and in Spanish, and they can indicate to us what they’re wanting and needing, whereas verbalizing those things would be very difficult for them in the middle of an emergency. Seventy percent of our patients are autistic. Patients, when stressed, are going to have a very difficult time communicating whatever is going on,” Woodard said.

Emily Scott, executive director of the Autism Foundation of Oklahoma, emphasized the importance of equipping first responders with the right tools and training.

“We want them to feel completely equipped and completely trained in order to help these individuals. These kits were thoughtfully put together by individuals with autism, with parents and our staff, who have experience in these situations,” Scott said.

Woodard, who travels across the state and country to train others, shared his personal connection to the initiative.

“I have had experiences with autistic patients including experiences having autistic family members. I’m probably a little bit more prepared to deal with this, and especially now that I’ve been teaching it. So yes, I have had these experiences, and allowing those on the spectrum to have what they need to deal with the situation is by far the best thing we can do,” he said.

Local partnerships, such as one with Bob Moore Subaru, have made these resources possible.

“It’s been a great partnership, a great opportunity, and it’s always nice to see that we’re able to give back. Customers help by choosing a charity when purchasing a vehicle. It’s going to people that need it and going back to our hometown charities,” Dylan West from Bob Moore Subaru said.

The kits include items such as fidget spinners, headphones and communication booklets to help autistic individuals effectively communicate during crises.

Woodard noted that the training is already making a difference.

“I get emails and text messages quite often from people saying, ‘Hey, I took your class, and because of that, we were able to deal with this situation.’ Or, I’ve had people call me in the middle of an emergency and say, ‘Hey, we have this going on. What should we do? How should we deal with this?’ It’s grown into a mobile integrated health division where we’re getting resources for people with children and their family members,” he said.

With these new resources set to be implemented soon, Oklahoma City firefighters will be even more prepared to assist autistic individuals during emergencies.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Olivia Hickey

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — More than 500 animals, including over 450 birds, were seized during a drug bust in southwest Oklahoma City last week and surrendered to Oklahoma City Animal Welfare, clearing the way for their adoption.

For the first time, Oklahoma City Animal Welfare has released videos showing the animals, which were taken in after the meth bust on June 25 and June 26.

Johny Sandoval, animal welfare superintendent for the city of Oklahoma City, said the animals’ health concerns became apparent as the seizure progressed.

“As the seizure progressed throughout the night on June 25 into June 26, we did identify that a lot of the animals did have some health concerns,” Sandoval said.

In addition to drug charges, the owners of the home could face animal cruelty charges.

“Our animal welfare investigators are pursuing cruelty charges with the district attorney’s office,” Sandoval said.

Officials have not disclosed specifics about the animals’ conditions but said every available space inside the shelter is now being used to care for them.

“We had to convert all of our existing space that we would typically use for horses and large livestock to house the birds,” Sandoval said.

The one horse seized during the bust is receiving care at another facility.

With hundreds of animals still needing care and the investigation ongoing, transferring the animals to other facilities and finding them new homes will take time.

Animal Welfare officials said the best way to help is by donating or adopting an animal to create space during their “Name Your Price” adoption event, which runs through Friday.

The Oklahoma City Police Department said the investigation is ongoing, and the district attorney’s office has not yet commented.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Ben Winslow

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    ORANGEVILLE, Utah (KSTU) — A nuclear power startup and an artificial intelligence computing company are partnering to try to create a “waterless” data center.

At an event here on Wednesday, NVIDIA debuted a chip fully powered by Valar Atomics’ small modular nuclear reactor. It was used to launch a website to demonstrate its capabilities when scaled up. The website is accessible here when the reactor is powered up.

Valar Atomics founder Isaiah Taylor said it would not use water. Instead, helium cools it.

“Our architecture reactor that we’ve built here operates at higher temperatures which does not make water cooling necessary,” he told FOX 13 News. “On NVIDIA’s side, they’ve worked out an architecture for their cooling systems which operates at higher temperatures as well, once again allowing for air cooling and a closed-loop system.”

Valar Atomics has been working on its small modular reactor in a sandbox environment at the state of Utah’s San Rafael Energy Lab. The company announced last month it had achieved “criticality,” a milestone for nuclear power development and beating President Trump’s July 4 deadline for nuclear power pilot projects.

Under his “Operation Gigawatt” initiative to expand energy production in Utah, Governor Spencer Cox has pushed to introduce nuclear power to meet growing energy demands. Companies have been setting up various projects related to nuclear power across the state. So far, Valar Atomics is the first to have a working reactor.

As of Wednesday, when FOX 13 News toured the reactor, company officials said it was only generating 100 kilowatts of electricity. But Taylor said the plan was to begin scaling up.

“Over the next couple of years here in Emery County, you’ll see us take the next steps towards have a full commercial system,” he said.

Valar Atomics and NVIDIA’s partnership for a waterless AI data center is something being watched by Gov. Cox’s Office of Energy Development. The state has seen large public protests over celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary’s “Stratos Project” data center development in Box Elder County. The public pushback, with concerns about impacts to the environment and the Great Salt Lake in particular, has forced the governor to issue an executive order setting guardrails around data center development.

“You have to use our resources responsibly, or else we’re not going to let you do it. It’s always been that way and it’s going to continue to be that way,” said Emy Lesofski, the director of Utah’s Office of Energy Development.

Asked if she believed Valar Atomics and NVIDIA could achieve what they wanted to with a “waterless data center,” she told FOX 13 News: “We’re standing here today. A lot of people had skepticism about what we could do if we worked together, and we’re standing today at the San Rafael Energy Lab where we have a test reactor that is producing power and a power a chip. I would never say no.”

Taylor said he believed it could be a solution to data center concerns.

“We believe that this is the way forward. We know that the United States needs to be competitive in artificial intelligence,” he told FOX 13 News. “AI factories and scaling it out is a national strategic priority for the United States. But we need to do it without taxing local communities of water and power and that’s exactly what we’re proving today.”

NVIDIA went further in announcing plans for a future AI factory in Emery County, something that generated huge cheers from the crowd (though no timeline has been set for it). Community leaders have been largely supportive of Valar Atomics’ project, saying they have communicated extensively about their plans.

“It’s great for our local community, not only the job base but the tax base as well,” said Emery County Commissioner Jordan Leonard. “They’re hiring our local folks and just excited they’re here and the new technology with energy.”

Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, who sponsored the legislation to allow nuclear power development in the state, told FOX 13 News he believed this is a good idea.

“We’re going to save water for you guys up north in the Great Salt Lake and we’re going to build some AI data centers down here in rural Utah that’ll help the economy,” he said. “I think it can be done.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Abel Garcia

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    LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Long before the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip, before the casinos and the crowds, the city that would become a global destination was nothing more than a small creek in the Mojave Desert.

That creek — and the springs that fed it — changed everything.

The Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort stands as the oldest non-native building in Nevada and the birthplace of modern Las Vegas. Lisa Leavitt Messenger, a historian at the fort whose family ties to the property stretch back more than a century, walked us through the remarkable timeline of how it all began.

“In 1776 this part of the country wasn’t even part of the United States yet. It was a desert, vast barren empty desert, but there was one amazing resource in the middle. This dry area, there were springs with an incredible amount of abundant water that just bubbled out of the ground and a runoff creek, inspiring plant life, animal life and Native Americans and Southern Paiute,” Messenger said.

“Water is the source of anything and everything that happened here in Las Vegas,” Messenger said.

That water made the Las Vegas Valley a critical stop for travelers crossing the Mojave Desert. Explorer John C. Fremont was among those who helped spread the word.

“It was the only water for 50 miles… once word spread, travelers, explorers — John C. Fremont — made sure people knew you could stop here, refresh yourself and your animals, and survive the journey,” Messenger said.

By 1855, Mormon missionaries identified the desert oasis as the ideal location for an outpost — making it the first permanent non-native settlement in the Las Vegas Valley.

“One of those outposts… was here in Las Vegas because of the water. In the spring of 1855 he called 30 men in his congregation to please come to Las Vegas and set up an outpost,” Messenger said.

The missionaries arrived in June 1855 and quickly got to work.

“The Mormon missionaries arrived in June 1855 and just a couple months later started forming, hand-making, and sun baking adobe bricks to build a fort,” Messenger said.

The structure they built was no small outpost.

“This fort is 150 ft square, and as far as Mormon forts go… this was one of the largest,” Messenger said.

Just weeks after arriving, the missionaries marked a milestone that connects the site to the nation’s founding.

“The very first Independence Day celebrated here in Las Vegas was by those Mormon missionaries on July 4th, 1855,” Messenger said.

When the Mormon mission ended, a man named Octavius Gass transformed the fort into a working ranch.

“Octavius Gass took the old Mormon fort, built a family home in one corner… expanded the acreage of crops — starting a ranching era that lasted 90 years,” Messenger said.

That ranching era took a dramatic turn when Gass sold the property to a man named Mr. Stewart — who did not live long enough to see what it would become.

“Mr. Stewart, he was killed two years later, he was murdered,” Messenger said.

Stewart’s death left his wife, Helen Stewart, in an extraordinary position.

“He left his wife pregnant with her 5th child to run this ranch… She was forced to learn the industry — unheard of for a woman then — and what she accomplished sets an incredible example,” Messenger said.

Helen Stewart’s leadership of the ranch eventually attracted the attention of railroad surveyors, and what they found at the Las Vegas springs sealed the valley’s future.

“They saw the springs in Las Vegas and knew that this is where the railroad had to come through because they were gonna have to refresh not just the people and the travelers and employees but the steam engines on the trains. They needed water,” Messenger said.

“That essentially brought everybody here to Las Vegas. They wanted to come to this new town. Amazing event happened over a two day period, a land auction sponsored by the railroad. It brought in hundreds of people and in 48 hours, a town of Las Vegas was born at Fremont and Main Street,” Messenger said.

The original adobe structure at the fort has endured for more than 160 years — surviving every chapter of Las Vegas history, including a surprising role in one of America’s most iconic engineering projects.

“This old adobe building was used as a concrete testing laboratory for Hoover Dam for 2 years,” Messenger said.

“It has survived over 160 years, and it is the oldest building in the state of Nevada,” Messenger said.

Through every transformation — from desert oasis to missionary outpost, from ranch to railroad town, from dusty auction site to global destination — Messenger says one truth has never changed.

“It was the water. Nobody would have stayed or built anything here without it,” Messenger said.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KTNV verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Ryan Fish

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    DENVER (KMGH) — There’s no ocean near landlocked Colorado, but next year, a man from Pine Junction will try to be the first Coloradan and oldest person ever to sail around the world non-stop by himself, including the challenging Five Great Capes.

Steve Siguaw is planning to start that roughly 27,000 nautical-mile journey next August in France and finish about 300 days later. He’ll be 78 years old at that time, which would set a new record, though he said that’s not his only motivation for the voyage.

“I’m always looking for adventure,” he told Denver7. “I’ve completed the Leadville 100 Race 18 times… I also ran a race across Colorado once — which was 310 miles — and so [my family has] seen me doing these crazy things.”

Siguaw said the journey will be in honor of French sailor Bernard Moitessier. As part of his preparation, he just did a trip across the Atlantic to Portugal. That’s where he used his Starlink internet connection aboard his boat to talk with Denver7.

Siguaw has sailed around the world before with his wife. He said his biggest challenges will be stocking up on enough food for the journey and dealing with the stormy Southern Ocean.

“The storms sweep off Antarctica, come right across there, and that’s what you have to battle,” he explained. “You hang on a lot, and you know, I think if the boat can make it, I can make it, and I’m just worried about getting de-masted, you know, the mast falling off or something like that. But I’ve re-rigged the boat, and the boat is in great condition, and it’s ready to go.”

Although Colorado is not known for its plentiful sailing options, Siguaw said the unexpected thunderstorms he’s faced while sailing on Dillon Reservoir have actually helped him prepare for this voyage on a much smaller scale.

Siguaw compared this potential accomplishment to his previous milestones on land, urging people to push themselves.

“It’s like Leadville, when you do the 100-miler the first time, when you finish, you know, you’re dead, you’re just beat the pieces,” he said. “And then after a period of time, you realize, ‘Wow, what have I done?’ You know, it’s something monumental… Just go for your dreams. It can be anything, you know, it could be, you know, running a race, running a marathon. Okay, running a 5k. If you never run a 5k, do that, but just push the limits.”

The Five Great Capes are Cape Horn off of South America, Cape of Good Hope off of South Africa, Capes Leeuwin and South East Cape off of Australia and South Cape off of New Zealand.

Australia’s Bill Hatfield is and would remain the oldest person to complete the global, non-stop solo journey, though he did not navigate the Five Great Capes.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jordan Bontke

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    GOLD CANYON, Arizona (KNXV) — A retired Phoenix police officer turned rattlesnake wrangler has captured what experts believe is an exceedingly rare albino rattlesnake in the Gold Canyon area — and she’s pregnant.

Phil Roberts, of Gold Canyon, has relocated more than 85 rattlesnakes over the past year, all free of charge, after spending more than 30 years with the Phoenix Police Department’s violent crimes bureau.

“After 33 years in the department, I wanted to do something a little safer, so I became a rattlesnake wrangler,” Roberts said, smiling.

Roberts takes calls from friends and neighbors in the Gold Canyon area and removes rattlesnakes at no cost.

“I appreciate neighbors looking after neighbors,” Roberts said.

One of those neighbors spotted a white snake and initially mistook it for a walking stick. Instead of reaching for it, they reached out to Roberts.

“Vivian, this is so rare, you wouldn’t believe it,” Roberts said in a video he took.

After Roberts posted about the capture on social media, Bryan Hughes of Rattlesnake Solutions — the largest snake relocation and prevention business in the United States — said the reptile community took notice immediately.

“Whenever we get an interesting animal, our inbox just goes nuts with people wanting it,” Hughes said.

Once the snake sheds her skin, that will allow for more testing to be done to determine exactly what species the snake is, but Hughes said initial research leads him to believe it is a tyrosinase-positive albino snake. That trait is exceedingly rare in the wild, though more common in the pet trade.

Of the more than 24,000 rattlesnakes Hughes has relocated over his 20-plus years in the field, he has encountered a snake like this in the wild only twice.

“I never expected to see something like this in my life,” Hughes said.

During a closer examination of the snake, Hughes made an additional discovery — the snake is pregnant.

Rattlesnake Solutions will continue researching the discovery to determine the best course for the rare snake.

If you find a rattlesnake at your home, Rattlesnake Solutions advises against trying to kill or catch it. Keep pets away, try to keep an eye on the snake, and call a licensed professional. According to the company, snakes are more scared of people than people are of them.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KNXV verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.