8-Foot-Long Albino Boa Discovered Wrapped Around Car Engine by Mechanics in South Carolina

The large snake was found during a routine car checkup on Tuesday morning

A South Carolina automotive company was left in shock after discovering a boa constrictor wrapped around a car engine on Tuesday.

An 8-foot-long albino boa was found nestled inside the hood of a 2015 Ford Focus and entwined around the engine by Tony Galli, a technician at Beach Automotive in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“I popped the hood open, I saw this big thing laid across it,” Galli recalled of the moment he discovered the boa to ABC 15 News. “I didn’t even know what it was. I thought it was an oil sock to absorb oil.”

“Then I was like ‘No, that’s a snake.’ Then I poked it and it moved and I was like ‘that thing is alive,'” he continued. The car had been sent in for a clutch shutter and recall, according to the outlet.

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"I called Matt, the shop foreman there, and said ‘You good with snakes?’” Galli said. “And he said ‘No, is it a garter snake, because we had one yesterday here’ and I said ‘No, this is bigger.”

Self-employed ‘Snake Chaser’ Russell Cavender was then called in by the company to retrieve the boa from the engine, ABC 15 News reported. The reptile expert posted photos capturing the moment he pulled the large snake out of the vehicle on Facebook.

“I have found many many things underneath the hood of cars. Possums, squirrels, rats, and several snakes, but never an 8-foot albino boa constrictor,” Cavender wrote in his caption. “I’d say a pretty interesting morning!” he added.

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In a clip that was also posted, Cavender was filmed struggling at first to unwrap the boa, as it tightly clung to the engine. A few seconds later though, he was able to extract the snake from the vehicle as he held it in both hands.

"Well, I am glad I had a mechanic there because he did have to take a few parts out so I could get him out,” Cavender explained to ABC 15 News. “And he came out a lot easier than I thought he would because this is pure muscle. If he wanted to wedge himself in a certain part of that engine, it would have taken a long time. A lot of coaxing.”

What is most surprising about the discovery is that the albino boa is native to Central and South America — not South Carolina.

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Cavender described the boa as “calm” and shared his theory that the large snake most likely climbed into the engine for warmth.

“I’ve never seen anything albino before,” he added. “This is the first albino snake I have crossed. It’s obviously non-native, but it was cool.”

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