Catalytic constrictor

A car sits dormant for months, and a 6-foot snake comes coiling. A nervous mechanic calls a specialist.

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Vernon Yates, who cares for wounded animals and owns Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, unwraps a 6-foot boa constrictor from the catalytic converter of a 1991 Geo Prizm on Thursday. The car had been towed to Atlantic Auto Repair in St. Petersburg after remaining idle for months.

By ANDREW MEACHAM

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 7, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- At first, Tam Tran thought the snake coiled on top of the car's engine block was fake.

"Somebody trying to scare somebody," Tran said.

But when Tran tried to remove the "toy," it reared its head and tried to bite him.

"I snapped the hood and ran away," Tran said.

Later, as a wildlife officer poked at the reptile from beneath the car, Tran added, "I'm still scared of him."

[Times photo: Pam Royal] Nen-Nen, a 200-pound, 14-month-old Siberian tiger, waits in the truck of her owner, Vernon Yates, who was attending to another matter. Yates, the director of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, was called to Atlantic Auto Repair in St. Petersburg to assist in the removal of a 6-foot snake from a car. Nen-Nen provided nothing but moral support.

The excitement began when the 1991 Geo Prizm was towed Thursday morning into Tran's shop, Atlantic Auto Repair at 226 16th St. N.

The car's owner, April Anderson, 20, waited three months before getting the car checked. She said she does not know which of her Pinellas Park neighbors, if any, might have lost a boa constrictor.

Tran, 45, called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. By the time Officer James McGill arrived at the shop, the snake had moved to the middle of the car and wrapped itself around the catalytic converter.

McGill called wildlife rescuer Vernon Yates, who arrived with a 200-pound Siberian tiger hanging out the passenger window of his truck. Within minutes, Yates had uncoiled the boa, which measured at least 6 feet long, and put it in a cage in the back of his truck.

Yates, 48, who cares for wounded animals at his home and owns Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, said snake owners often fail to give their pets enough food or keep them in suitable cages. Heavy rains then drive them from storm drains or from beneath houses.

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Anyone who wants to claim ownership of the snake can call Vernon Yates at (727) 399-1525. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has the final say on who gets it.

Tran's wife, Tsuan (pronounced Swan) Tran, 50, heard the commotion but never ventured outside to see the snake.

In the 15 years she and her husband have owned the shop, nothing like this has happened.

"It's the first time," she said. "I hope it is the last."

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