Wandering Boa Leaves Car Owner a Little Uptight

When Heather Simmons of Irvine decided to check under the hood of her Subaru on Friday afternoon, she thought she might find that the oil was a bit low.

Then she screamed.

A 6-foot boa constrictor, wide as a football, was wrapped around the spare tire in the engine compartment.

“I thought I was hallucinating,” said Simmons, 27. “I had to turn and look at it again just to make sure it was really there.”

City animal control officers arrived about 20 minutes later and easily pulled the rather tame creature out.

Simmons said she hadn’t driven her car since Monday, so the brown-and-tan reptile could have hidden there since then.

None of the neighbors on Skylark Lane claimed ownership of the snake, so where it came from remains a mystery.

Simmons, who moved to Irvine last month from Lake Tahoe, Nev., said, “I’ve had birds in the house and squirrels in the garbage at home, but nothing like this.

“When it happened, I was thinking that I want to move back to Lake Tahoe.”