Police officers were forced to improvise with a coat hanger and police baton after discovering a four-foot boa constrictor hiding inside the engine bay of a car in Nottingham.
Nottinghamshire Police were called to an address in Sherwood on Friday 11 September after a resident spotted a snake slithering down a driveway before disappearing underneath a parked vehicle.
When officers lifted the bonnet, they discovered the boa constrictor concealed inside the engine compartment.
Faced with the unusual rescue, PC Dan Howard and Sergeant Joanna Stanbridge fashioned a makeshift snake hook by attaching a wire coat hanger to the end of a police baton.
The officers carefully coaxed the snake out of the engine bay before placing it safely inside a repurposed police stab vest bag.
The boa constrictor was then taken to a local veterinary practice for safekeeping while efforts are made to trace its owner.
Chief Inspector Paul Hennessy praised the officers’ quick thinking.
He said: “While I doubt any of them will have had snake wrangler listed among their skill set before, the officers did a great job thinking on their feet in the manner they did.”
He added that the unusual call-out demonstrated once again that “in policing, no two shifts are ever the same”.
