Arizona woman finds rattlesnake in the back of her car
PHOENIX, Ariz. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - An Arizona woman gets the surprise of her life when she finds a rattlesnake in the backseat of her car.
"First a laugh and then panic. I lost my mind," said Milan Watt, the woman who had the snake in the back of her car.
No warning rattle. Not even a hiss.
"He turned around and he had seen a tongue, kind of like flipping at him," Watt shared.
"Get out of the car"
Watt says she wouldn't have realized a rattlesnake was curled up in the backseat of her car had her boyfriend happened to look behind him.
"He's like, 'Get out of the car,' and so I freeze up because when I get scared, I freeze," Watt remarked.
Not knowing what to do, Watt called 911, but says she was told firefighters couldn't help since it wasn't a life-threatening emergency. Her boyfriend then used a broken tree branch to fling the reptile free.
"In a state where there's lots of critters and lots of things that can get into small spaces, personal spaces to know what to do in that situation and who to call," Watt added.
Snake Guru
If you find a snake in your home or your car, there are wildlife rescues and even companies who will come to remove it 24/7.
"In a car, that's pretty unusual. Snakes are really, really good at getting just about anywhere they want to go," said Nicholas Massimo, owner of Snake Guru. "Put it in the bucket and then very carefully put the lid back on."
Massimo recommends people back away to a safe distance but try to keep eyes on the snake until help arrives.
"Very slow, calm movements. Try not to do anything that's really jerky and fast that could startle him," Massimo explained.
They'll relocate the snake and even figure out why it might have slithered there in the first place.
"Most of the time, it's there for a reason, whether that's food, water or shelter," Massimo reasoned.
A one-off chance
A snake in Watt's car was likely a one-off chance.
"We got real comfortable in that car. That snake made it's home in there," Watt further shared.
But she'll be checking under the seats everytime she gets behind the wheel anytime soon.
"I don't know what I would have done if I had saw it while I was driving. I would have crashed the car," Watt expressed.
