THE MORNING CALL (Allentown, Pennsylvania) 14 July 07 It's enough to give a motorist a hissy fit (Michael Duck)
Photo at URL below: Bethlehem police remove a boa constrictor that slithered from a man's engine compartment at a Wawa in Bethlehem.
As Scott Naylor of Bethlehem pulled up to the gas pump Friday, he had no idea a beady-eyed, cold-blooded passenger lurked inside his sport utility vehicle.
The unsuspecting Naylor hopped out at pump No. 5 at the Wawa at Eighth Avenue and Schoenersville Road in the city. Then someone started yelling.
It was a woman at the next pump over, trying to tell him that a snake more than 5 feet long was emerging from his SUV's engine compartment, according to a Bethlehem police report.
The boa constrictor, apparently someone's former pet, must have inadvertently hitched a ride by curling up on Naylor's engine overnight. The snake slithered out into the gas station's parking lot after Naylor stopped to fill up about 11:40 a.m., the report states.
Bethlehem police quickly caught the snake, and no one was injured. Still, the big snake in the middle of the busy gas station attracted lots of attention, said Detective Mark DiLuzio of city police.
''It created quite a traffic jam there, because everybody wanted to see the snake,'' DiLuzio said. '' something you don't see every day in a Wawa parking lot.''
The snake's size indicates it's pretty young, said Keith Galvin of Galvin Wildlife Control. ''It's still relatively small,'' he said, recalling that nearly a decade ago in Easton he was called in to handle a 15-foot boa constrictor that was ''as big around as a man's thigh.''
Because snakes are cold-blooded, they rely on outside sources of heat to keep up their body temperature.
''It got cool night; so it went up inside the engine block because it sensed heat,'' Galvin said, pointing out that boa constrictors are tropical snakes.
''It probably got loose from somebody else who-knows-when,'' Galvin said.
Lehigh Valley winters are mild enough that some boa constrictors can survive here in the wild, Galvin said. Boa constrictors generally eat rodents and other small animals or birds, killing the prey by squeezing it until it can't breathe.
Naylor told police that the snake wasn't his and that he had no clue it was in his truck, the police report states.
''He opened his door, and the just came out,'' said Wawa manager Sandeep Chopra, who called police. ''It was a surprise.…He was surprised, too.''
Attempts to speak with Naylor on Friday were unsuccessful.
Officer Chad Wasserman and officer Tim Cooper were able to grab the snake, DiLuzio said. Police then stuffed it into a pillowcase from DiLuzio's house and called Galvin to pick up the animal.
''It was just curled up under a tree,'' Galvin said, noting that this snake turned out to be pretty docile.
Galvin, a wildlife control expert for 13 years, has become a go-to resource for local authorities when large reptiles turn up. In March, he helped Bethlehem police handle a 3-foot-long crocodile on a restaurant's front stoop, and soon afterward he helped with a 5-foot snake in Easton, he said.
Galvin said he's now trying to find a new home for the Bethlehem boa constrictor, either at a reptile farm in Monroe County or with a wildlife rehabilitator who uses snakes in educational programs.
For now, the snake is at Galvin's Upper Macungie Township home, where he runs his business. The snake is in a spot ''where it's nice and cool, because you don't want it to be too active,'' he explained.
Galvin said the snake also is still stuffed inside DiLuzio's pillowcase -- which is tied shut, to prevent any more slithering into SUVs.
It's enough to give a motorist a hissy fit

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