Photo: Joliet police Officer Michael Reilly holds a 6-and-a-half-foot ball python he removed from the engine compartment of a man's truck Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011, in Joliet, Ill. | Submitted by the Joliet Police Department
JOLIET — It wasn’t the first “snake” police officer Michael Reilly has caught in his career, but Thursday’s suspect didn’t go easily.
A man who went out Thursday to inspect his truck in his driveway in the 400 block of Cherry Street “was really surprised when he opened the hood and saw what was coiled around the carburetor,” Reilly said.
The six-and-a-half-foot ball python wasn’t poisonous — as the man reported to 911 — but police still came out to help.
“He had crawled up there to get close to the heat from the engine and I got it loose after about an hour,” said Reilly, who used to have a large pet snake. The snake had escaped from a neighbor’s house about two weeks ago, and police returned the fugitive serpent to its owner.
