An adult eastern rat snake that made its home inside a breaker box at an intersection in Prince William County, Virginia, was removed after it inadvertently turned off traffic signals.
A call was put in reporting the traffic lights were out at Prince William Parkway and Sudley Manor Drive in Manassas at about 8:45 a.m. Monday.
Prince William County police officers arrived to direct traffic, which was backed up for about 45 minutes due to the outage.
When law enforcement and a Virginia Department of Transportation worker opened the breaker box to figure out the issue, they saw the snake in the wires. Animal control was called to remove the non-venomous snake that is common in Virginia.
The rat snake was ultimately removed without harm and relocated to a more suitable habitat. Inside the box were feces, the remains of a bird’s nest, and molted skin.
The nest suggested to officials that the snake had entered the box in order to go after the birds and possible eggs.
Once the serpent was removed, the VDOT technician flipped the two switches that the snake had slithered over, turning back on the traffic lights.
Luckily, no accidents were reported as a result of the snake.
“Most of rush hour was done by then. It could have been a lot worse,” Master Police Officer Renee Carr told the Prince William Times newspaper.
Law enforcement also urged drivers to remember that, if traffic lights go out, to treat the intersection as a four-way stop sign and to proceed with extreme caution.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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