A snake? Why did it have to be a snake? It's never good when something comes crawling out of your dashboard vents, but Florida resident Monica Dorsett got a shock when a red rat snake came slithering out of her car vent while she was driving.
Monica's daughter Kristina Dorsett posted pictures of the car snake to Twitter, which is how it caught our attention. Monica Dorsett described the situation to The Daily Mail, saying that she was driving in Venice, FL when she spotted the snake coming out of the driver's side vent. Like most of us, her first reaction was to stop and jump out of the car. Fortunately, she resisted that instinct and pulled into a parking lot before screeching to a stop and rolling out of the car.
Dorsett said that while she waited for help to arrive (in the form of her husband), the snake had climbed out of the car, but then decided to go back in. She slammed the door, trapping and injuring the snake. The snake was removed from the car but did not survive. Dorsett has had it with this dashboard hiding snake, but is also hoping that it didn't leave any eggs behind.
The snake was identified as a red rat snake, which isn't poisonous, but does that really matter when it's less than a metre from your face in a closed car? The Florida Wildlife Commission says that the red rat snake is the best climbing snake in that state, which helps explain how it was able to get through the HVAC system.
It's always a shock when you get an unexpected passenger, whether it's a mouse, an insect, or a snake. But if it does happen don't panic, because a crash is more likely to hurt you than the intruder. So pull over as quickly as you safely can, put the vehicle in park, and then feel free to jump out and start screaming.
