Man discovers python in car

Man discovers python in car
He thought it was a rubber snake
Tuesday, 05/30/06
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) The next time Dan McBride rents a car, he plans to search it inside and out.
"I think I will probably do that for a while," said McBride, the assistant athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University.

McBride's new vigilance is the result of finding a 2-year-old ball python in his rental car last week as he left the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament in Paducah.

McBride got into his car Wednesday night with fellow assistant athletic director Simon Gray and saw the snake draped across the console. McBride said he thought it was a rubber snake someone put there as a joke.

McBride even gave the snake a pat and put the car into drive. Then, as McBride drove toward the exit, the snake lifted its head. McBride hit the brakes, then started to get out of the car with Gray.

There was a problem, though. The snake was on the gear shift, forcing McBride to keep his foot on the brake.
"You can't act tough when you are sitting a foot and a half away from a snake," Gray said.
Don Chappell, a captain of the Paducah-McCracken County Disaster and Emergency Services auxiliary police, realized the snake was not dangerous and used his police baton to lure the snake out. The python wrapped around the baton and was dropped in a five-gallon bucket.

Chappell plans to keep the snake until someone claims it or he finds a good home for it.
No one is sure how the snake got into the car, though. McBride said the car came from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Richmond, which he then took on the five-hour trip to Paducah for the baseball tournament without seeing the python.

Laura Bryant, the public relations manager at Enterprise's corporate headquarters, said she was unaware of any other similar incidents.

Jason Finnie, lead pet-care specialist at PetSmart in Paducah who helped Chappell identify the snake, said the python was well taken care of. Finnie said it is unlikely someone lost the 2-foot-long snake, though.

Finnie guessed that the owner probably no longer wanted the snake and left it in the rental car in Richmond. Once there, Finnie said, the snake probably climbed into the front of the car.