DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A person called authorities for help after they found a Burmese python when they opened the hood of their car in Dania Beach.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said the snake was spotted at Tigertail Industrial Park, in the area of Stirling Road and Southwest 20th Way, just before 10 a.m., Thursday.

“That was at least 20 feet,” said Gerard Doffay, who helped wrangle the snake. “It was a big snake. That thing had a girth of about 7 inches.”

According to officials, the reptile was spotted after a person at an auto repair shop opened the hood of their blue Ford Mustang after the check engine light turned on. The python was found curled up on top of the engine bay.

Then, those people ran next door to seek Doffay’s help.

“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll go and help them. I’ll yank it out from under the hood of their car,'” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that python underneath the hood of the car.”

Doffay said he was not frightened and jumped in to help first responders wrangle the reptile.

“He grabbed it by the back of the head,” Doffay said. “He started pulling it towards him, and I saw an opportunity to help and get it out from underneath the sway bar, so we grabbed it out. By that time, it was around his hands. I had to help pull his hands out from inside the coils, and we tried putting it in the bag three or four times. Eventually, it took four people.”

After the snake was freed from under the hood, it was wrapped up and taken away from the area.

Because the car was sitting outside overnight, Doffay believes the snake snuck in from a nearby lake.

“I think that they’re going to be possibly a lot of dogs and cats going missing in residential areas because they’re obviously getting closer,” Doffay said.

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