Eureka Police responded to a strange call for help on June 18.
At about 9:20 a.m., Sgt. Tom Wille said a woman driving a Toyota Prius east on I-44 discovered a snake in the car. He said she pulled over on the shoulder between the exit for Six Flags Road and Hwy. 109, where a Denny’s restaurant can be seen from the road.
“I give kudos to the young lady, getting pulled over to the side of the road,” Wille said. “Most people would have probably had an accident if that happened to them.”
The woman told an officer she had been camping in Crawford County and was returning to St. Louis. The officer attempted to remove the snake from the car, but the snake disappeared inside it, Wille said.
He said the woman had the car towed to the Eureka Police Department, where she and officers waited for the snake to leave.
“Once it got to our parking lot, we opened all of the doors, and the snake finally found its way out on its own,” Wille said.
However, after the snake crawled out of the car, an officer began to back the car out of a parking space and the snake crawled into a wheel well, so the wait was on again, Wille said.
At 11:53 a.m., the snake once again emerged, and Eureka resident Ed Kiernan, also known as Outback Ed, recovered the snake and released it in a safe area, Wille said.
Outback Ed Inc. is a traveling reptile show Kiernan operates.
“It is right toward the top of the list of (odd calls),” said Wille, who has been with the Eureka Police for 28 years. “It is not a call you get everyday.”