He had a terrifying stowaway.
A New York man was driving through Manhattan on Saturday afternoon when the U-Haul van he rented to transport a sofa was damaged in an accident and he discovered a live snake under the seat.
Jared, who gave only his last name, was on his way back to his downtown Brooklyn apartment with his roommate through SoHo after picking up a sofa he found on Facebook Marketplace in New Jersey.
The 25-year-old trader was driving his van at the intersection of Canal Street and Broadway when he looked down and noticed what he thought was a “large” “toy” snake at his roommate’s feet.
“Maybe someone left a toy snake in their car? So I reached over to pick it up wondering what it was,” Jared told The Washington Post.
Jared realized the slithering snake, white with yellow stripes and about three and a half feet long, was actually a live reptile.
“It was warm and heavy, and then it turned its head and looked at me,” Jared said.
Jared and his roommate reportedly panicked and began yelling, “Oh, shit!”
“I wasn’t thinking straight at this point. I hate snakes. I panicked. I took my foot off the brake and crashed into the car in front of me,” Jared said.
After he crashed his U-Haul truck into a car in front of them, his two roommates also had to deal with a live snake that was in the truck.
“I put the car in park and put my feet on the seat. My first thought was to throw it out the window and get out of the car, but then I realized I was in Manhattan. There was nowhere to put it. There were pedestrians everywhere,” he recalled.
The two female officers who responded to the scene “didn’t want anything to do with the snake,” Jared said.
Animal control officers eventually arrived and searched the van for the snake, then placed it in a large white bag and took it away, police said.
Jared doesn’t think the snake came from the couch he bought.
“We know there was no snake in the couch because the couch was taken apart to fit into the truck,” he said.
A Washington Post reporter contacted the U-Haul in the Bronx where Jared rented the truck, and a man who declined to give his name answered the phone and confirmed he had reported the horrifying discovery.
“The U-Haul is used for a variety of purposes. We have no idea how the snake got in there. We’re certainly surprised,” the worker told The Post.
Jared is just thankful that no one was seriously injured.
“Oh my goodness, what terrible bad luck. I feel so sorry for those girls who were hit by the car. I’m just thankful that no one was hurt. It could have been so much worse.”
