Pet Boa in Speck of Trouble : Auto Mechanics Rescue Snake Trapped in Car

By JODI WILGOREN

Aug. 15, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

COSTA MESA — When Michael Hylton called to say a snake was stuck in the frame of his car, workers at the Sears Auto Center thought it was a prank.

“I said: ‘Sure, bring it down, we’ll take it out for free,’ ” manager Lou Carnella recalled. “I didn’t think it would happen.”

The joke was on Carnella on Friday afternoon, when a team of auto mechanics spent half an hour prying the six-foot boa constrictor, named Speck for its gray-and-black spotted scales, from Hylton’s cherry-red 1976 Chevrolet Impala. The men removed the car’s lower suspension arm, took out the coil spring that was trapping the snake, then sprayed water and oil into the frame to help Speck glide out.

Surrounded by television cameras, Sears service manager Wade Hopper grabbed Speck’s head and pulled. Hard.

“This is definitely a first,” Hopper said as he wiped his hands. “Everything went real easy until we tried to get the snake out of there--then it was a battle.”

Hylton’s 14-year-old son, Sean, who is on the East Coast on vacation, has owned the Colombian red-tailed boa for two years. The Costa Mesa family also owns several lizards, two dogs and a cat.

Speck is a nonpoisonous snake that is worth about $300. He lives in a cage in the Hyltons’ living room, but Sean and his dad sometimes take him out to the yard for some exercise.

“We took him out for a walk three weeks ago and he disappeared,” Hylton said, clearly amused by the scene at the auto center. “The snake has gotten loose before, but nothing like this.”

The neighbors had been searching everywhere for Speck when Hylton spotted him about a week ago peeking out from the bottom of the Impala, which the family had been driving since the snake’s disappearance. Hylton tried to lure him out with whistling, water and even a tasty-looking rat, but nothing worked.

Snakes can survive for months without food, San Diego breeder Bob Applegate said. The cold-blooded reptiles can also adapt easily to excess heat such as that inside the frame of a car, he said.

“It was a neat pet in the beginning, but after a certain time period you get kind of apathetic,” Hylton said of the new Sears mascot.

“I don’t think we’ll take him out for weekly walks anymore,” he said. “I will let him out one more time. I have one boa for sale.”