Aussie's startling find hidden in 4WD after driving home from the beach
An Aussie has made a startling find hidden inside their four-wheel-drive after a 'tense' drive home from the beach.
After spending the day lapping up the sun and ocean waves, the Broome resident packed up their Land Cruiser and headed home. However, they soon realised they were not alone, with a large intruder also deciding to join them on the journey.
Moments after popping the car's bonnet, the driver was greeted by a 1.8 metre mulga — Australia's largest venomous snake — that had climbed up a front wheel and tucked itself inside.
Photos posted online by local snake catcher Aidan Mitchell, who was called out to help retrieve the 'beauty', show the native animal poking its head out an opening in the bonnet, which he said provide 'good hiding spots'. 'It was a tense drive home for someone,' he said.
Mitchell detailed the 'challenging and unconventional catch' to ABC Radio, revealing the owner of the vehicle left it under a carport for a few days before hiring someone to drag the 4WD into the driveway using a forklift.
'Nobody was keen to get inside the vehicle and drive it. Understandably,' he said, adding the snake 'wouldn't have known where it was'.
'It was just climbing up a thing and that's where it made itself comfortable for the time.'
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Mitchell said his strategy was to 'just keep the snake moving' until it was in position where he could easily 'get a hold of it'.
'It was very tricky, but every call is a little bit different, so it just requires a bit of a bit of good judgment and resourcefulness. I thought a snake under a bonnet, yeah, we've got to be pretty careful with that,' he told ABC Radio.
'It was identified as a mulga, so it's a whole element of safety and consideration of a venomous reptile like that, to do it gently for the snake itself and safely for people around.'
Over an hour later, the snake finally shifted into an accessible position and was removed and relocated. Although the circumstances were unusual, Mitchell said it's not the first time he's found a snake seeking shelter in a car's engine bay.
'I had to dismantle a brand new Land Cruiser one time — the internals — to find a tiny little tree snake. It was about a foot-long [and] blended in with all the wires and everything. So that was interesting.'
The snake catcher urged anyone who does come across a snake in their car or home to back away carefully, call a professional for help and keep an eye on it.
'We're snake catchers, not snake finders. If people turn their back and run away, and I arrive there, and they don't know where it is — I'm not looking.'
Late last year, a travelling couple were stunned to find a 2kg mulga snake in their 4WD's engine bay after setting up camp in South Australia.
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