When you buy a new car, you don’t often expect to get more than the vehicle and a car payment. But for one Chicago woman, she got that, and just a tiny bit more. Well, actually, quite a bit more.
She found a python. The woman had seen the slithering snake living poking its head out of the undercarriage of the Toyota sedan. The surprised the 4-foot long python immediately slid back up into the car and wrapped itself around parts, refusing to come out.
Brad Lundsteen works to remove a ball python from a car. Photo by Brian Hill
When the phone rang, Brad Lundsteen, owner of Suburban Wildlife Control, said he typically spends his time handling squirrels, mice and even raccoons. But not ball pythons, especially in the Midwest.
My bread and butter are raccoons out of attics, skunks under houses,” he said. “Snake in the car was definitely an unusual call.”
Once the woman saw the snake, he said, it took off. “The minute the snake saw her, [it went] right up the undercarriage of the car and it was gone,” Lundsteen said. “It was wedged in a space this tight, wrapped around some parts.”
Lundsteen, who is renowned for catching wildlife, said this particular snake was just too stubborn for him to get it out. The smell from the car, he said, indicated that the snake had been nesting there for a while now. “I started pulling and slowly got him out. It took me a half an hour. These guys, when they grab on, they are so strong,” Lundsteen said.
Brad Lundsteen shows the ball python he removed from a car. Photo by Brian Hill
Ball pythons are not native to the Midwest, and he said they are usually found in their native habitat of Sub-Saharan Africa. But people purchase them as pets, Lundsteen said, and likely this had been someone’s pet at one point. “It’s almost always somebody’s pet that has gotten out or gotten too big. So, they disposed of it,” he said.
“I know the snake didn’t come from here obviously, so it just goes to show animals do get in and hitch rides,” Lundsteen said. He said he had to reach into the vehicle’s blind spots with his bare hands, before finally having a garage crew remove the car’s rear wheels.
The snake was hiding just above the axle. “I was pulling it really hard, and then it finally just popped out,” Lundsteen said, reflecting on his 30 minutes struggling with the 4-foot-long critter.
“I thought it would be twice as big. I was kind of shocked,” Lundsteen said. “I expected it to be much longer… They can get gigantic. We had one that was 16 feet long that had escaped out of an apartment building and literally coiled itself around a car.”
Thankfully, the Chicago woman now has a snake-free car, and the mischievous ball python is likely headed to a new, and much safer, home.
