Python passenger hitches a ride on car in Geneva

A pesky python proved to be a formidable foe for a local wildlife professional after becoming an unwanted passenger in a car in Geneva.

The snake was first spotted on Tuesday by a woman checking a friend’s house in the 200 block of Jefferson Street. The ball python was sunning itself on the front steps of the home.

The woman, who preferred not to be identified, approached the snake to take pictures. But the serpent slipped away, went underneath the rear of a Toyota Crown sedan parked in the driveway, and disappeared above the tires.

A ball python was first spotted Tuesday while it was sunning itself outside a house on the 200 block of Jefferson Street in Geneva.
Supplied photo

After posting pics of the snake on social media soliciting advice, she contacted the police and local animal control, neither of whom could help.

Ultimately, she contacted Brad Lundsteen, owner of Suburban Wildlife Control.

Lundsteen had already seen the post and was eager to take the case. He went out to Geneva on Wednesday.

“They’re definitely not native to the area,” Lundsteen said. “It’s almost always somebody’s pet that has gotten out or gotten too big. So they disposed of it.”

Lundsteen said he only had to remove about a dozen snakes during the 38 years he has been in business, including one that hitched a ride in his truck on a trip back from Florida.

Lundsteen searched around the underside of the car and couldn’t see the snake. But he could smell it.

“They smell really musky,” Lundsteen said.

The snake was so entrenched in the car that Lundsteen had the woman drive it about five blocks away to State Street Collision, who offered the use of a lift. Lundsteen followed closely behind to check that the snake didn’t come off en route.

Once on the car on was lift, the snake still wasn’t visible. Mechanics used an inspection camera to poke around with no luck while Lundsteen reached barehanded into blind spots trying to find the reptile.

They eventually removed the two rear wheels and found the serpent coiled on a part above the axle.

After roughly a half hour of poking, prodding and pulling, Lundsteen finally won the battle of wills with the snake.

“I was pulling it really hard, and then it finally just popped out,” Lundsteen said.

He thought from the photos it was going be more than 8 feet long.

“I thought it would be twice as big. I was kind of shocked,” Lundsteen said of the more-than-4-foot reptile. “I expected it to be much longer.”

Not that he was complaining.

“They can get gigantic,” he said. “We had one that was 16 feet long that had escaped out of an apartment building and literally coiled itself around a car.”

Lundsteen said he’ll take the snake to a licensed reptile rescue facility.

· Daily Herald staff writer Rick West contributed to this report.