After weeks of searching, Amber Hall believed she had finally found the perfect place to call home — a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Centennial, Colorado, complete with a backyard for her kids and dogs to play in. It was her first home, and she was excited to settle in and begin a new chapter.

But just days after moving in, Amber discovered that she wasn’t the only one living there.

It started while she was unpacking. One of her dogs began acting oddly, creeping toward a spot near the garage door with unusual caution. Thinking it might be a bug, Amber checked — and what she saw shocked her.

“There were two small holes in the wall,” she recalled. “I looked closer… and then I saw snakes slither up inside.”

Snakes — inside the walls of her new home.

Amber soon found out it wasn’t an isolated incident. The wall near the garage door was warm to the touch, suggesting more creatures were hiding within. So far, she has found a total of 10 snakes. A professional snake wrangler she hired suspects some of them may have been living there for years.

“This was supposed to be our fresh start,” Amber said. “But I can’t even unpack. I’m terrified there are snakes in the boxes, under the bed, anywhere.”

She added that experts believe the reptiles are garter snakes, though their unusually large size has surprised everyone. “People keep saying, ‘Yeah, those are garter snakes’ — but nobody’s ever seen ones this big.”

A Costly Surprise That’s Hard to Shake

Since the first sighting, Amber has spent around \$1,000 on snake removal services — a cost that’s quickly adding up. But more than the financial strain, it’s the constant anxiety that’s made the house feel more like a nightmare than a dream.

“I’m 42. I’ve worked my whole life to buy my first home. And I’m too scared to sleep in it,” she said. “My kids can’t even enjoy it.”

Amber now believes that only tearing up parts of the foundation will reveal the extent of the problem. And while she doesn’t know whether the previous owners were aware of the issue, she can’t help but feel misled.

As the snake sightings continue, so do the sleepless nights — and the worry that her family might never feel safe inside the home they hoped to grow roots in.