MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Imagine popping the hood of a vehicle and being confronted with the daunting image of a robust and sizable serpent with the ability to coil and tighten around its prey.
That happened to Matthew Trudeau, the shop foreman at Beach Ford in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen cats, we’ve seen rodents, we’ve seen possums, squirrels, but I’ve never seen a snake,” he told FOX Weather on Thursday.
Yet, this wasn’t just any snake. It was an 8-foot albino boa constrictor.
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One of Trudeau’s colleagues was the first to notice the unusual reptile when he brought it inside the shop after it was parked outside the previous night. The car had originally been brought in for transmission repairs, but the situation quickly became focused on removing the powerful creature.
Trudeau contacted Russell Cavender, owner of ‘The Snake Chaser,’ for help removing the large boa. He sent a photo to show the size of the snake.
“We didn’t know if it was alive or dead,” Trudeau said. “We called ‘The Snake Chaser Russell,’ and he came down, and we had to disassemble part of the car, and he took it out.”
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According to Trudeau, he contacted the car’s owner, and they claim to have no knowledge about how the snake ended up in the vehicle. Only speculating, Cavender imagines it climbed up in the hood wherever the car was originally parked before it was driven to the shop.
“It could have just been a nice place to hide. It’s hard to say,” Cavender told FOX Weather. “I have found many snakes in vehicles underneath the hoods, wheel wells and transmissions, but never an 8-foot albino boa constrictor.”
The snake had a few battle wounds and was malnourished but in fairly good shape, Cavender said. Caretakers will soon feed it after rehydration.
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Due to its non-native status, the boa cannot be set free into the wild. Additionally, Cavender notes that the albino snake holds some worth and will be entrusted to one of his staff members with expertise in breeding this species.
“He will have a good life, I can guarantee that,” he said. “A lot better than what he was.”
Cavender reminds snake enthusiasts that when they buy a boa constrictor or Burmese python, they will grow big.
“Just be prepared for that because when you buy them, they’re only 12, 14, 16 inches long, and they can quickly become 8, 9, 10, 15 feet long,” he said.
It’s worth noting that they can be a bit intimidating to non-professional handlers due to their immense strength and power.