ORLANDO, Fla. — A shot rang out. It was 2 a.m.
Most residents of College Park were asleep. Not Chris Edson, his brother, Brian, or their buddy Rick Eslinger. After four hours, they had given up trying to overpower and outsmart a 13 1/2-foot cobra that had stolen into Eslinger's garage and was hiding beneath a cabinet.
They had laid down their brooms — their weapons of choice until they realized what they were facing — and had convinced police officers that it was time for the ordeal to end.
Eslinger dropped into a crouch, and as police looked on, fired a single shot from his 12-gauge shotgun. It hit the cobra just below the jaw, and the snake dropped into a bloody but coiled heap.
Saturday, Edson, Edson and Eslinger had the cobra stretched out in Eslinger's front yard next to a measuring tape and told their amazing tale to anyone who stopped by.
A slew of people did, including neighbors who strolled by and snapped a few photos and a couple of teenagers going door-to-door with pizza coupons.
No one could believe what they saw: a king cobra, one of the deadliest snakes in the world, as long as a compact car, laid out on a patchy lawn in College Park.
"It was in the garage last night, boys," Eslinger told the wide-eyed boys.
"And mad," said Chris Edson.
No one had any idea where the snake, a native of Asia, had come from. "This is somebody's snake that got loose," Eslinger said. "I'd like to know who."
State law requires anyone owning a poisonous snake to have a license, said George Van Horn, owner of Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud, Fla., who survived a near fatal cobra bite in 1995.
The drama started about 9 or 10 p.m. Friday, when Eslinger went into his garage for a cooler. He saw a portion of the snake coiled beneath a cabinet. He called his hunting buddy, Brian Edson, to come take a look. Edson then called his brother, Chris.
"I knew it was a snake. I didn't know it was this," Eslinger said.
They thought it might be a pine snake or a boa constrictor, a breed Chris Edson had once owned. The Edsons decided to try to capture it, put it in a pillowcase and sell it.
They each armed themselves with a push broom. The plan was to poke it with a stick, flush it out, and then pin it to the ground with the brooms.
But when they poked it, it reared up and spread its hood, a sign it was preparing to attack. That's when the men recognized what they were facing.
"We immediately dropped our push brooms and ran out of the garage," said Chris Edson. "We got out of there faster than you can say milkshake, although that's not the word we used."
They called 911. It took four calls to convince dispatchers that it was a cobra in the garage, Chris Edson said. They called for help only after Edson threatened to open the garage door and let the snake loose, he said.
Police Lt. Larry Zwieg said officers arrived just before 2 a.m. With their OK, Eslinger got his shotgun.
Van Horn, the snake expert, said it was a shame the snake was killed. It was not likely to attack, he said. It puffed itself up to try to scare off attackers.
"An escaped king cobra is probably less dangerous than one of those ski boat things out on the water," Van Horn said.
If a cobra does bite, a person needs immediate medical care, he said. The snake's venom causes paralysis, something that can lead to suffocation because it shuts down a body's respiratory system.
For a time Saturday, the snake's carcass was in Brian Edson's freezer. Said Chris Edson, "We're going to probably make three pairs of cobra-skin boots. He's big enough."