DAILY HERALD (Arlington Heights, Illinois) 19 September 07 That's no decoration, that's a boa constrictor (Amie Shak)
A Burr Ridge family got an early Halloween scare when they found a snake about 6 feet long laying in their driveway Monday night.
Jackie Dunbar was in her house about dusk Monday when her sister went out to walk the dog.
Soon after leaving, her sister came back inside asking if a snake in the driveway was part of Halloween decorations Dunbar recently had put up.
"She thought I threw it out there to scare her," Dunbar said.
After figuring out the snake wasn't a decoration, Dunbar went outside to see what her sister was talking about.
"It was right in the middle of the driveway. It wasn't coiled up like a rattlesnake; it was just stretched out long and sat there for awhile," she said.
Dunbar ran back inside and grabbed a video camera to get a picture of the snake to identify it later, and a flashlight so she could keep tabs on what the snake was doing.
She later brought the video to Lyons Township High School in LaGrange to get some help determining what kind of snake it is, she said.
A biology class at the school thought it was a boa constrictor. Dunbar said she looked at several photos online and couldn't find one that matched it, but the boa constrictor was the most similar.
The snake, which finally slithered away, has not been caught -- something Dunbar now regrets.
"Now I wish I would have maybe done something. I just let the thing slither off… I figured, leave it alone it's a wild animal," she said.
Although she's not especially scared of snakes, she said, "I didn't want to touch the thing; I didn't want to get that close."
But now, the big question -- besides wondering what kind of snake it was -- is wondering where it is.
"If there's a 6-foot boa constrictor running around, I don't want my daughter running out there without me," she said.
As for her sister, she won't be walking around the property any time soon.
"Thank goodness my sister is a big chicken; she wouldn't come back out here (after seeing the snake). She said, 'I'm not walking my dog here anymore,'" Dunbar said.
That's no decoration, that's a boa constrictor

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