Snake was trapped in driver's door
Photo: Avi Chatiel
The snake who went for a ride
Safed resident shocked to learn he had driven around for over 20 minutes with reptile in car
A Safed
resident who set out to run some errands on Monday was surprised to learn that he wasn't alone in his car, but in fact had shared a ride with a meter-long snake.
The encounter concluded with the unfortunate death of the snake, which turned out to not have been poisonous.
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The man, Avi Chatiel, parked his car at an industrial zone in the northern city and went to meet a friend. When he returned to the vehicle he noticed a string-like object caught in the driver's door. Upon taking a closer look he realized that it was a snake.
The 'dangerous' reptile (Photo: Avi Chatiel)
Chatiel postulated that the reptile attempted to leave the car while the door was open, but missed the opportunity and was trapped. The driver and his friend pulled the snake out by its head using pliers. The animal survived the ordeal but was put down by the two men.
"How would I have managed to stop the car if it had bitten me?" Chatiel pondered. "I drove around for 25 minutes with a viper in my car without realizing it."
Roee Sharon, a professional snake catcher from central Israel, said identified the reptile as a nonpoisonous coin snake.
"It was the snake's mistake, mainly," he said. "In all likelihood there wasn't any food in the car. He crawled around, saw a nice dark hole and decided to go in. He probably couldn't find his way out until the driver got in the car."
Sharon added that snakes often tend to avoid contact with people, and noted that coin snakes are the natural enemies of vipers.
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