DEMOPOLIS – A very unique visitor visited the downtown fashion store Very Unique Fashions Friday morning giving customers something more to talk about than just the fine yet unique clothes, shoes and owners of the popular downtown store.

Customers were scared silly Friday morning when a chicken snake made his way through the front door of the downtown Demopolis fashion store owned by Veronique and A. C. Green.

Kay Rice of Coatopa, AL, got the scare of her life when she walked into the downtown store Friday morning to find a two-foot chicken snake at her feet.

“It about scared me to death when I realized what it really was,” Rice said.

Rice said that when she first noticed the snake, she believed it to be nothing more than a kid’s toy. But when it moved, rice quickly realized that this toy was real.

“I looked down at the floor as I walked into the door and saw the snake,” Rice said. “I thought it was one of those rubber snakes that kids play with. But when it moved, I realized it was no toy.”

The snake, according to eyewitnesses Regina Bruno, Pamela Rice and Mike Grayson, slithered into the front door of the store, like any other shopper, admiring the lovely shoes and clothes in the window display.

The snake must have been in the need for a new summer look, and after window-shopping down Main Street he discovered Very Unique Fashions. Once the scary customer was noticed, all other costumers, hurried to the back of the store for safety, not knowing what kind of snake it was, and most not caring to know.

“A snake is a snake,” rice said. “I didn’t care what kind it was. All I knew was that I didn’t want it anywhere near me.”

In the end the unique visitor was graciously asked to leave, but when he refused, the snake was escorted from the property by James Foxhall and Jebb Bailey, who were brave enough to catch the snake and escort him out of town.

And though this unique visitor was a snake, store owners Veronique and A. C. Green can at least be proud that of all stores to visit, this unique visitor picked the one with the best styles and the best prices.