A Franklin Township couple got an unexpected surprise after a routine wheel alignment on Sept. 14: a three-foot ball python had wedged itself into their car’s grille on Oakland Avenue.
Aiyana Hudson said she was panicking when she spotted the snake, while her boyfriend tried to talk her down. “He told me, ‘Stop — you’re acting like someone died,’ and I was like, ‘It’s a snake,’ and he’s like, ‘Let’s go look at this,'” Hudson told ABC7.
Not sure who to call, the couple first tried animal control, but were told the agency only handles domesticated animals. That left them turning to the Franklin Township Police Department.
“We tried getting animal control out there, and they’re like, they only deal with domesticated animals. And we’re like, oh shoot. OK. So, we’re kind of like the last resort,” Officer Lisseth Villacis told the outlet.
Body camera footage from the scene shows officers examining the vehicle and working out how to safely extract the snake without hurting it or themselves. The effort took roughly 20 minutes.
“We were just like, ‘OK, he’s being brave. I’m being brave. We got this. Let’s just try to take it out,'” Villacis said.
Officers ultimately succeeded in removing the python, which was taken to an animal shelter and is expected to be available for adoption. It remains unclear how the snake ended up in the car’s grille.
Hudson said she was relieved the snake stayed put during the drive home. “I was just really happy that it didn’t, like, pop its head through the AC vent when I was driving or come in through the steering wheel,” she said. “I want to let you know my car would have been lit on fire, and we’d be calling the fire department at that point.”
