Python found at local restaurant
May 25—There was a holdup Saturday at the Sonic Drive-In, but not the type for which police are typically called.
Employees gave a menacing description of the suspect, but this was no robbery. The holdup in this case was strictly supply-side — no employee would set foot back inside the building as long as that thing was still behind the deep fryer, said Brunswick Police Department Lt. Matthew Wilson.
"When I first got the call, they said it was brown and had diamonds on the back," he said. "So I thought, wow. Then I though, well, I need to look at it first."
But the nerve-rattling description turned out to be misguided.
"When I saw it, I could tell it was just a ball python and not a rattlesnake," Wilson said.
Not that it mattered much to the crew at Sonic. To a person they waited in the parking lot until Wilson took possession of the frisky fella. This one was about 3 1/2-feet-long. That is pretty big for the species. But Wilson wrangled the reptile easy enough with the aid of a broom handle, extracting it from its coiled position on ventilation piping behind the fryer.
In case you are wondering, they do not teach this stuff at the police academy. Wilson has a pet ball python of his own. Monte is only slightly shorter than the scaled intruder at Sonic, so it was nothing he could not handle.
"I ended up catching it with a broom handle," Wilson said. "I just got it where I could secure its head. Then I put him in a paper bag and carried him out."
Wilson has a snake-keeping friend who has a roomy terrarium that this renegade python will find comfortable.
"He's got a new home," Wilson said.
Pythons are common pets among those with a penchant for reptiles. But how this one ended up in the kitchen at Sonic, or where it came from, is anybody's guess at this point. Wilson suspects the snake is an abandoned or escaped pet, which likely entered the Sonic through an open door and then sought to warm its cold blood behind the hot fryer.
"Sonic leaves a back door open quite a bit," Wilson said. "I'm thinking he was very thirsty and very hungry and was out on the hunt. And he found a warm place behind the fryer. They like the warmth."
Wilson's theory about the snake's origins and intentions are a likely scenario, said Eammon Leonard, an invasive species biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Snakes are often an impulse buy for animal lovers of the adventurous stripe. Everything is cute when it is little. Then one day you've got a yard-long, forked-tongue reptile on your hands.
"It could be somebody just didn't think through the consequences of a large snake as a pet," Leonard said. "Some people have regrets later on and just release things. It is definitely irresponsible."
Such exotics species can wreak havoc on the natural environment, not to mention scaring the pants off of neighbors and fast-food restaurant workers, he noted. Reports of free-slithering pythons are not uncommon. But the subtropical natives are not likely to survive a Georgia winter, which is good news for the environment but still further evidence of the irresponsibility of pet owners with second thoughts.
"People need to think these things through before getting a pet like this," he said. "And if they do find they need to get rid of a snake, don't just let it go. Reach out to us (921-264-7218). We can help them."
That said, this is not likely to be the last python caper on the local police beat.
"This was the third call we've had in the last three or four months for snakes," Wilson said. "There was another ball python in McIntyre Court. And we had another call for a snake in a backyard, but we couldn't find it."
Sweet dreams, Golden Islanders.
