After a large lunch, a 4-foot-long rat snake made its way to a Cherokee County gas station Thursday afternoon. When it slithered up to pump 8, a customer called 911, according to the sheriff’s office.
But before Animal Control could dispatch a snake wrangler, Capt. Jay Baker grabbed the wayward reptile and put it in an empty pillowcase he carries in his patrol car.
And no, not all deputies carry pillowcases. And not all are obsessed with snakes.
“If there’s a snake call, I’m gonna go to it if I’m close," Baker told AJC.com.
Baker was about a half-mile away from the Chevron on Marietta Highway in Canton, so he responded to the call. He arrived to find a rat snake in front of a gas pump.
“It was obvious the snake had just eaten something rather large,” Baker said.
The pillowcase comes in handy whenever he’s asked to move a snake, he said. Harmless rat snakes are the most common in the area — but not to gas stations.
In some woods about a mile away, Baker set the snake free. The snake regurgitated its lunch, which appeared to be a rat. Then, it was time for Baker to return to duty as the department’s public information officer and await the next snake call.
By his own count, the snake was the 23rd of the year Baker has relocated, making him the leader in his family, he said.