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Cops Bust Illegal 'Sideshow' Car Meet, Discover 10-Foot Python In Cadillac CTS - The Autopian
Sideshows are a scourge across the nation and can be difficult for law enforcement to wrangle, but at least there’s some consistency on what cops should expect to deal with: car and bike enthusiasts, both as spectators and participants. Human spectators and participants. Officers in Vallejo...
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"Sideshows are a scourge across the nation and can be difficult for law enforcement to wrangle, but at least there’s some consistency on what cops should expect to deal with: car and bike enthusiasts, both as spectators and participants. Human spectators and participants.
Officers in Vallejo, California recently busted up one with what callers estimated to be 500 cars (this could be a fat-finger situation with the PD’s report – 50 sounds a lot more realistic). After a brief chase with one alleged participant, officers found a 10-foot reticulated python in an abandoned Cadillac CTS.
That’s right, in the line of duty, the police happened upon a big ol’ snake at a sideshow. Let’s step back in time a little and break down exactly how they ended up in the situation.
According to the Vallejo Police Department, callers reported a sideshow at the intersection of Mare Island Way and Harbor Way a little after 11 p.m. on August 23. The callers reported that dozens of cars were participating, so multiple agencies responded including Vallejo PD, Solano County, American Canyon PD, Cal Maritime PD, Benicia PD, and CHP along with its Air Operations division. That’s when things get really spicy, as the helo overhead reported a Cadillac shining a powerful laser (while doing donuts, no less) into the chopper.
Officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the sedan but the driver decided to flee the scene, driving almost ten miles before ultimately bailing and leaving the CTS behind in Hercules, California. Three passengers were on board as well, who also ran. A fourth passenger did not run, as it was a snake.
All of that drama resulted in exactly no success for any of the occupants, as police caught up with each of them. They arrested the driver on felony evading charges and cited the three other occupants. There’s no word on if the snake is facing any sort of discipline aside from being reunited with its owner after the fact.
One photograph shows an epic officer posing with it. Few people are comfortable around snakes in general and even fewer would be okay with one this size hanging around their neck. Not only was this public servant comfortable, but she looked happy about it despite coming across this during her work day.
Notably, pythons of this sort can be dangerous, but incident rates are low. That’s especially good since their teeth are angled backward and to get out of their mouth one needs to go deeper in first. Kudos to that awesome officer and the departments that worked together to safely end the pursuit, and a special shout to Officer Cool With Snakes."
The Autopian is a pretty chill site, so the comments were pretty decent:
"Ngl, I would probably be about as excited as the cop to cuddle the big noodle, considering they have completely adorable little faces deserving of many gentle boops. That said, I hope the snake’s person wasn’t one of the arrestees, they deserve a better human."
"I have a somewhat related story.
When I was a boy, I had two boa constrictors. One of them was having some sort of weird issue so we decided to take him to the vet. My father took the wheel while I handled the boa in the passenger seat.
It was a hot summer day in Southern California, and the AC in dad’s 1970 280SE was non-existent. We decided to stop at 7-11 for slurpees. I left the snake on the passenger seat while we ran in to make a transaction that would hopefully take less than a minute.
The transaction, in fact, did take less than a minute, but it was still too long. As we got back to the car, we saw the snake’s tail disappearing under the dashboard on the driver’s side. I crawled under the dash to see if I could get him out, but he was wrapped multiple times around the steering column like a noose knot.
Big snakes are very strong, and when they’ve wrapped themselves around something like that, they aren’t easily pulled off. So we got in the car and drove home, hoping the snake would decide to come out. He didn’t.
We left him in the car hoping he would come out. My dad continued to drive his car on a daily basis with a boa constrictor wrapped around the steering column. Days, then weeks went by, until we completely forgot about him.
Fun fact- boa constrictors can go for months without food. Months went by and there was no sign of the snake. We had assumed that he had somehow escaped and was frolicking in the hills eating small rodents.
About 4 months after his disappearance we got in the Benz to go somewhere and were immediately hit with a horrendous gut wrenching smell. Immediately, we thought of the snake. We began searching the car expecting to find a bloated snake carcass. He wasn’t in the dash or under the front seats, so we pulled up the back bench seat.
He was under the seat- alive and well.
My dad then went to the trunk and found a bag of groceries he had forgotten about that happened to contain some fish.
So we put the snake back in his cage. The cage door was held down by a rather large heavy rock, but that did not deter him from breaking out that very night, slithering across the living room, and eating the mynah bird that we kept in a large cage. The snake couldn’t get out of the cage afterwards because he kinda looked like the snake drawings in The Little Prince.
When we left SoCal, I gave the snake to a friend, who sold it to Slash the guitarist, who eventually donated it to the Los Angeles Zoo."