An Arizona man was driving home earlier this week when he got the shock of a lifetime in the form of a slithering stowaway on his windshield.
Layrd Mahler, the owner of a local brewing company, was heading down Shea Boulevard in Phoenix on Monday when he spotted something that as first glance appeared to be the head of a rodent or a lizard pop up from his hood.
‘After that, I see the body of a snake go up the windshield,’ Mahler recounted.
Sssurprise passenger: Layrd Mahler was driving in Phoenix, Arizona, Monday when a snake popped out of his hood and made its way up the windshield
Swish, swish: Mahler turned on the wipers to shoo the snake away, but the critter wrapped its body around them
Ready for its closeup: The driver snapped this photo of the stowaway before it took off
The married father-of-two waited for the tail to emerge to make sure it was not a venomous rattlesnake – it was not – and then switched on his windshield wipers to try and get rid of the scaly hitchhiker.
‘It wasn’t a sense of panic,’ he recalled in an interview with KTRK. ‘It was just, this is really coming out of my car. It’s something you see on TV, so to speak.’
The driver’s unwelcome passenger wrapped itself around the swishing wipers and eventually retreated under the hood of the car, prompting Mahler to pull over.
But before that, Mahler grabbed his phone and documented the snake by recording a video of its swishing back and forth across his windshield and took a closeup photo of its head.
‘Now I’m debating, “Do I get back in the car?” I don’t know if it’s going to go through the vent system because they can do that, or do I man-up and drive home? That’s what I did,’ Mahler said.
Mahler, a married father-of-two, drove home and inspected his car, but the snake was gone
Mahler believes the critter had slithered up under the hood looking for a warm spot to rest, but when the engine got too hot during the drive, the snake tried to flee
When the motorist reached his destination, there was sign of the snake. AZFamily reported that he later contacted an animal control company specializing in live trappings of snakes and other critters, but the intruder could not be located.
Mahler believes the critter had slithered up under the hood looking for a warm spot to rest, but when the engine got too hot during the drive, the snake tried to flee by crawling up the windshield.
Since his too-close encounter on Monday, Mahler has been carefully inspecting his car before hitting the road, just to make sure there are no scaly surprises.
‘I’ve basically sort of given myself a pep talk everyday to say, “Be prepared if something pops out.” That’s the best I can do, I think,’ Mahler said.