Virginia woman startled by snake after it slithers through car's air vent while she was driving

WARRENTON, Va. - It is what nightmares are made of. A Virginia woman found a snake slithering into her car Monday in Fauquier County.

Lora Goff was behind the wheel when she noticed the garden snake coming through an air vent and wrapping around her cellphone charging cable.

“It was about two, two-and-a-half feet long,” Goff said.

She was driving near her work in Warrenton at the time. She said he pulled over, called 911 and then snapped several photos.

“I just thought, ‘Nobody is going to believe this,’” Goff said.

Goff said when animal control arrived and tried to remove the snake, it retreated, hiding out somewhere in the car. Fauquier Now was there as animal control responded and captured what happened.

“We tried all sorts of things,” Goff said. “Running the air conditioning really cold, running it hot. Everybody was telling me different things to do.”

Eventually, Goff gave up and drove home with the snake’s whereabouts unknown. She said it was “nerve-racking.”

“I just kept moving my feet on the floorboard to scare it,” said Goff.

To deal with her unwelcome friend, Goff put glue traps under her seats and found the snake stuck on one soon after.

“I just wanted to make sure the snake was out of my car and that was the only thing I could think of to do was put the glue strip down,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I had proof it was gone.”

Around the region lately, we have seen other snakes showing up unexpectedly.

A venomous copperhead was found entangled in a fence near the National Mall at East Potomac Park. The National Park Service noted that mating season has arrived.

Two weeks ago in Prince George’s County, Laurel police removed a baby brown snake from a living room. Then last week, the same officer removed another snake for a different family. The police department posted photos on Facebook.

Police said increased rain can cause snakes to search out a dry place to stay.