LODI – A man stepped on and killed a pet snake moments after the reptile was purchased from an exotic pet store, according to police.

The incident occurred about 2:45 p.m. Jan. 21 outside NJ Exotic Pets on Union Street, according to a police report released Thursday.

A customer known to store employees came into the store with his father to purchase an albino corn snake, police said in the report.

After purchasing the snake, the customer “and his father exited the store and engaged in a verbal argument, believed to be over the purchase of the albino corn snake,” the report said.

One of the males “became angry, enraged and hostile, thus throwing the albino corn snake to the ground, at which time (he) proceeded to intentionally step on the snake’s head, thus killing the albino corn snake,” the report states.

The incident was witnessed by at least two people, both of whom gave their names and phone numbers to police, according to the report.

The incident involving an albino corn snake reportedly occurred Jan. 21 outside an exotic pet store in Lodi. (Getty Images | File photo) 

A store worker retrieved the dead snake and placed it in the store’s commercial refrigerator, police said.

Police redacted from the report the names of the customer who bought the snake as well as witnesses. The name of the father was not known to store employees, according to the report.

“This case is still under investigation,” Lodi police Lt. Robert Salerno said in an email on Thursday. “As of this time we are not releasing anything further until the investigation is complete.”

A call to a supervisor at Bergen County Animal Control was not returned Thursday morning.

According to LiveSnake.com, corn snakes are medium-length, non-venomous and are found in the Southeastern United States. The snakes are fairly calm and easy to care for, according to LiveSnake.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.