ATHOL, Mass. (WHDH) — Talk about a slithering surprise! A seven-foot Columbian boa constrictor somehow got into a car's dashboard. Turns out, it was the driver's pet.
"It was pretty wrapped because it was a seven-foot snake and I’m going to say I’ll I saw was maybe two feet of it. So it was pretty well wrapped in there,” said Pat Russell from Athol Animal Control.
Apparently the pet owner decided to take his snake for a ride without a carrier. He just put him right on the front seat and when he walked away for a minute, the snake slithered away and up under the dashboard.
Firefighters tried to yank on the only part of the snake they could see there under the gas pedal but when that didn't work, they started dismantling the car.
"We had to take apart a couple of panels on the dashboard, one from each side because it was 7.5 feet long so half the snake was on the passenger’s side and half where the driver sits,” said Andy Soltysik Athol firefighter.
They still needed the special talents of local snake enthusiast, Dave Riley. Dave tickled the snake to charm her out of her hiding spot.
"Much like a cat, when you stroke its back and it arches, when you touch a snake on its belly it tends to loosen up all of its scales…and when the head came down he was free to go,” said Dave Riley.
Everyone hoped the snake owner learned his lesson because this boa's apparently just a baby. She'll eventually grow to ten feet or longer; potentially a much bigger problem down the road.