A DRUNK driver threatened two Territory police officers with a live snake after he was pulled over in Darwin at the weekend. The driver allegedly picked up the wild snake, believed to be either a deadly western brown or a harmless water python, ...Now, that's precise information, by Gum!
... as it slid across the road during a random roadside breath test.
He pointed the reptile's head at the officers and threatened them, before escaping into nearby bushes, still holding the snake. "I felt personally threatened by it," said Constable Dale Howe, who was one of the officers involved. "It was at least a metre long and I'm not very good with snakes - I don't like them.
They taste like chicken. I don't like chicken, it tastes like snake.
"For someone to just go over and pick up a snake off the road is an unusual thing to do.
"I'm not sure what type of snake it was or if it was poisonous, but it was yellowy brown and, to me, a snake is a snake. They are all bad."
Constable Howe was with his colleague Constable Wolfgang Langeneck when they pulled over a Toyota Landcruiser, carrying five passengers, about midnight on Saturday after it was seen to be swerving along Amy Johnson Avenue.
The 17-year-old male driver was asked to step out of the car after he blew .131. As he was being questioned about the reading, he ran on to the road and picked up the snake. Despite endless requests by police to drop the reptile, the man failed to do so.
| "Put the snake down, son, and no one gets hurt." "You'll never take me alive, coppers!" "P-u-u-u-u-ut the sn-a-a-a-a-ke, do-o-o-w-wn, son." |
Darwin-based snake catcher Chris Peberdy said given the description of the snake and the area it was found, it was a western brown or a water python. "Both of those are commonly found in the Berrimah area," he said.
"I can see why the officers felt threatened. "A snake is as much a threat as a gun as you don't know whether it is loaded or not, as in containing the deadly venom."
Constable Howe, 30, said it is a story you would only hear of in the Territory. "It would be up there as one of the most bizarre things I have experienced in my three years in the force," he said.
The alleged offender has been identified and will be summonsed on charges of exceeding .08 and driving an unregistered vehicle. He will appear in Darwin Magistrates Court at a later date.