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JillW

JillW

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I was looking through old photos tonight and came across this one - and thought I'd share the story ...

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A few years ago our son, Jacob, was living downtown Chicago (not the burbs, but, right in THE city). He went to pick a friend up after he got off of work (around midnight) to have a few cocktails - and as he was driving to Jay's house, the 'low tire pressure' light came on. So once he got to Jay's he hopped out of his car and checked his tires. They were all fine. In the meantime, Jay came outside and grabbed the car door handle to get in - when he looked inside of Jacob's car - he screamed - and took this picture with his cell phone ... Jacob completely freaked out because he absolutely HATES snakes and had NO idea how it go inside of his car! They flagged an officer down ... he looked in the car and freaked out too. Another officer was radioed and as he arrived, they all watched the snake slither into the opening around the steering wheel.
The police told Jacob there wasn't much they could do - he was several blocks from home and by now it was early morning. They suggested he turn on the air conditioning full blast - to keep the car cool - in hopes the snake would stay up near the engine (since they like warm rather than cold). So he drove home with the air blasting - the cruise control on between stop lights and his feet up on the seat the best he could. When he got home he told his wife the story - she didn't believe him. He refused to drive the car the next day - so Amanda took him to work and when she got back home, she peaked in the car and there laying on the headrest was the snake!!

HOW it got into Jacob's car was (still is) a mystery!! Living in DOWNTOWN Chicago ... it was bizarre.

They called animal control but each time they arrived, the snake was out of sight. The took out the glove box in hopes of finding it - but couldn't.
This went on for many days - they'd see it lounging in the back window - hanging over the turn signal and laying on the floor.

They even called the Lincoln Park Zoo trying to get someone to come find the snake (because that car wasn't moving with that animal in there!). Finally one day it was on the backseat and animal control was able to nab it. It was a baby boa constrictor - about 8 inches in diameter and 5 foot long!

It was a crazy week ---- never figured out how it got there - but they did decide that it had been inside of the the dash while Jacob was driving to Jay's house - and that's what tripped the "check tire pressure' light to come on.

Just can't make this kind of stuff up!! LOL!https://the-lilypad.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
 
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I nearly threw up in my mouth just now. I like your Grandma stories SO much better Jill. Snakes are literally one of my biggest fears. I would have walked home, not kidding. And like your son, would not go near my car until that thing was out. Shudder.

I shared my car with a mouse one winter that decided to squat there for awhile. It wasn't fun when I was commuting to work (45 min drive) and that stinker would pop out and run across my feet! We couldn't find it either, just kept finding little nests it would make under the hood (near warmth of engine). Eventually it went away. A mouse I can handle ... a snake, NO WAY!
 
omg. no. Goosebumps.

I'm with Jenn - grandma stories are better than snakes! LOL!
 
agree with the Jens that Grandma stories are much better....

we dealt with snakes a lot when we lived in north east Brazil, but nothing of that size...and also is a village, dirt roads, no tarmac, is the forest on the sea side...we got the machete out and try cut the head... last time I remember I think we had a couple of drinks on us and the machete at hand was rust from one end to the other, but gave it a go....they are very fast, so we got the tail, and sneaked out through one of the beams into the outside floor... we couldn't sleep for 3 or 4 days because of the possibility of the thing coming back in..
 
*shivers* that's heading into nightmare territory for me! ack!! it makes for a great story though LOL
 
You just described my worst nightmare. I would never have driven that car again. :giggle What a crazy story though! Seriously, in downtown Chicago? Did one of his friends do it to play a prank? It's just too crazy for words!
 
I have a sad little snake story of my own, which may help you all like snakes better. They do rid us of small rodents and insects. Growing up in a rural area of Pennsylvania snakes were common and we often spent summer hours trying to catch them when we were kids. They hold no fear for me. Although I don't like that they eat frogs and once I pulled a small frog right out of a garden snakes mouth in my garden to save it.

But the story...
Is anyone else old enough to remember Big Wheels. They are a sort of a plastic tricycle low to the ground. They also had holes somewhere around the seat so you could adjust it to the size of the kid.

One sunny afternoon my son and his bestie peeled into our driveway at top speed, jumped off their big wheels and started this hysterical story about some construction one of the neighbors was doing on their driveway which apparently opened a small nest of baby garden snakes.

This is before selfies, instant phone cameras etc. But my son definitely recalls the day he and Sean caught the snakes...

So I asked them - "did you chase them away or touch them", fearing snake bites....
"Oh mom - we put rocks on them till they stopped trying to get away. Can we keep it."
"Did you pick one up I asked - where is it?"
"In the big wheel! Can we keep it?"

They had taken the poor last little live thing and put it in the extra hole for the seat. It wrapped itself around the wheel and was definitely dead after the hard ride to our house.

Getting it out of there was quite the chore and of course we had to have a funeral and hopefully they both learned to leave snakes alone...
 
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Lindzee said:
I have a sad little snake story of my own, which may help you all like snakes better. They do rid us of small rodents and insects. Growing up in a rural area of Pennsylvania snakes were common and we often spent summer hours trying to catch them when we were kids. They hold no fear for me. Although I don't like that they eat frogs and once I pulled a small frog right out of a garden snakes mouth in my garden to save it.

But the story...
Is anyone else old enough to remember Big Wheels. They are a sort of a plastic tricycle low to the ground. They also had holes somewhere around the seat so you could adjust it to the size of the kid.

One sunny afternoon my son and his bestie peeled into our driveway at top speed, jumped off their big wheels and started this hysterical story about some construction one of the neighbors was doing on their driveway which apparently opened a small nest of baby garden snakes.

This is before selfies, instant phone cameras etc. But my son definitely recalls the day he and Sean caught the snakes...

So I asked them - "did you chase them away or touch them", fearing snake bites....
"Oh mom - we put rocks on them till they stopped trying to get away. Can we keep it."
"Did you pick one up I asked - where is it?"
"In the big wheel! Can we keep it?"

They had taken the poor last little live thing and put it in the extra hole for the seat. It wrapped itself around the wheel and was definitely dead after the hard ride to our house.

Getting it out of there was quite the chore and of course we had to have a funeral and hopefully they both learned to leave snakes alone...
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Aw - I bet your son was heartbroken, bless his little heart - such good intentions!!
 
Karen said:
You just described my worst nightmare. I would never have driven that car again. :giggle What a crazy story though! Seriously, in downtown Chicago? Did one of his friends do it to play a prank? It's just too crazy for words!
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Karen, pretty sure none of his friends did it ... the animal control employee said they find lots of animals in strange places - when people cannot afford to take care of them they "get rid of them". So the only thing we could figure out is someone dumped it in the street and Jacob's car engine was warm so it decided that was to home sweet home!!
 
*shudder* I am not a fan of anything creepy crawly...snakes, rodents, insects, yuck!
 
OMG, that is quite a story! They could have made a Utube video of that, I bet it would go viral!
 
EWWWW.... And I am not afraid of snakes. We had one as a pet for years. My best snake story involves the thing getting out of it's habitat and sharing the house with us for 3 months until we found it again. Let's just say, I turned on the lights when I walked around at night.

Anyway, glad it was a constrictor, but still. EWWWW. And yes, weird.

Jen McCabe, my DH shared his car with a mouse this winter and it drove him nuts. He would find mouse poop on the dash! Finally got it with a trap in the engine and it was HUGE. EWWW. Again. LOL.
 
Ick! to ALL the mouse and snake stories. I don't like either. My older daughter had pet rats for a while, but I never was in the room when she had them out. I'm going to look suspiciously at my car from now on. Thanks so much!
 
jenevang said:
EWWWW.... And I am not afraid of snakes. We had one as a pet for years. My best snake story involves the thing getting out of it's habitat and sharing the house with us for 3 months until we found it again. Let's just say, I turned on the lights when I walked around at night.

Anyway, glad it was a constrictor, but still. EWWWW. And yes, weird.

Jen McCabe, my DH shared his car with a mouse this winter and it drove him nuts. He would find mouse poop on the dash! Finally got it with a trap in the engine and it was HUGE. EWWW. Again. LOL.
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We shared our house with a turtle once for three months. The kids had one of those tiny turtles from the pet store (no longer legal thank goodness) It got to be about 6 inches across the shell which is pretty good sized for a pet turtle and one day disappeared. We thought maybe the cat got him - looked all over and found nothing. then about three months later he crawls out from under a huge wicker basket/planter I had in in the family room. First heard rustling and thought it was a mouse - then voila, out comes turtle...

We also lost a hermit crab who managed to get out of the aquarium. and found it later in a closet. Sadly dried out and pretty dead....
 
I am shuddering at my desk right now... that snake could have kept the car, I'd have had to get another one. There is absolutely no way I would have driven it home. I'm not sure I could have driven it afterwards wondering if there was another one in there somewhere. I'd have a heart attack driving if something touched my leg after that.
 
i only seen 1 in my life, went slidding across away from me, when i approached father in laws front door at assistant living in flordia, of course he had to get a pic, and it still nerve shattering as that moment

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oh my goodness - these stories are freaking me out!! LOL! i don't mind animals - OUTSIDE - but i definitely don't want to be sharing any of my personal spaces with them!
 
I am so VERY scared of snakes .... which is hard considering that I am living in Australia where there.are.so.many.of.them!
 
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