Snake recovery a tricky job

In the world of automotive repair, you can never be sure what your next assignment will be.

Jason Hurdle, manager of Midas Bayfield, in Barrie, Ont., learned that this week when a regular customer asked for help getting a pet python out of his car.

“He said, ‘I have an adventure for you if you’re willing to accept it,’ says Jason. “His pet ball python got loose in the car and he was pretty sure it was under the seat.”

In fact, the snake had wrapped itself around some parts under the seat and he couldn’t get it out.

“One of my technicians is Indiana Jones when it comes to snakes,” says Jason (which is to say that, like the action movie hero, he’s deathly afraid of them), “but our apprentice Giancarlo loves snakes. He used to have one, actually.”

So while everyone else watched from the sidelines, Giancarlo removed the rear bolts on the seat, slid it forward gently, and started trying to free the snake. Once he was able to start unwrapping it, it relaxed its grip on the seat.

“It knew it didn’t want to be there,” says Jason. “It just didn’t know where to go. It was dormant, almost dead, but once Giancarlo was coddling it, and warming it up, it started coming back to life and moving around.”

The whole process took about 20, 25-minutes. So, based on that, Jason charged the customer $40.

“We’ve done other stuff for free for this customer,” Jason laughs. “You can’t do everything for free!”