ST. THOMAS - It's the stuff urban legends are made of.

Imagine a more than 6-foot-long boa constrictor roaming the hills of the Peterborg peninsula, slithering through the foliage and making a meal of whatever small beasts might happen into its path.

Only on Saturday night, Judith Cox wasn't imagining things.

And what she saw as she was driving home in Peterborg did indeed appear to be a very large snake, coiled up near a neighbor's yard.

A major double-take and a quick U-turn later, Cox was grabbing for her cell phone, dialing 911, and was about to have what she now, tongue in cheek, calls her "UFO moment," as the reptile, which appeared to have recently eaten, was languidly making its way across the road.


"You hear about people reporting UFOs and no one believes them," she said. "And that there was my UFO."

Cox said she couldn't believe the size of the serpent. And police dispatchers, she says, didn't seem to believe her at all.

"I could hear them giggling. I said, 'You know something, I am not hallucinating. I am not a crazy person. I am sane.' I said, 'This is the biggest snake I've seen in my life,'" she said.
But the lady on the phone seemed doubtful and inquired whether perhaps she might actually be seeing a garden snake, Cox said. After Cox assured her it was not, the dispatcher told her someone would get back to her.

For Ken Sylvester, animal control officer for the Humane Society of St. Thomas, Saturday night was about to get a lot more interesting.

"I got a call from 911. They say this lady is very scared of this snake she see coming out of somebody's yard," Sylvester said. "I say maybe it's a little island snake. I tell them I'm going to go check it out."

Meanwhile, Cox went to find a friend who lives nearby.

"I said to him, 'Listen, come with me. I have just seen the biggest snake I have ever seen,'" Cox said. The man halfheartedly grabbed a flashlight and accompanied her back to where the snake was lying, on the other side of the road it had just crossed, she said.

"When he saw it, he almost fell back!" she said. "He could not believe the size of that thing."

Even though Sylvester had by this time called Cox and she had reiterated her claim that the snake was not of the garden variety, the Humane Society officer still had in mind a "little island snake" when he and a co-worker pulled up.

And then he laid eyes on the creature in the flashlight beam.

"I'm thinking, 'Uhn-uhn. They gotta call somebody else,'" said Sylvester, who had brought a pet carrier to collect the creature. "I'm scared of snakes. And this snake is huge."

Quelling the fear, he approached.

"I was thinking maybe I could grab him. I could grab the tail, try to hold the head, like on TV," he said. The creature, however, apparently didn't buy into the plan. As Sylvester moved for it, the snake struck out in his direction, he said.

And flashlight went flying while all present beat a hasty retreat.

"They tell me: 'You got to get this snake out,'" Sylvester said. "And I'm thinking I really gotta get this snake out. Suppose it get a child or a dog."

Screwing up his courage again, this time armed with a rabies pole, Sylvester made his way back to the snake. He managed to get the noose around the creature, but then, to his horror, it began to curl around the pole, he said.

"I couldn't lift the snake by myself," he said. "I had to ask my co-worker to assist."

The snake definitely wanted no part of going into the pet carrier, he said. With Sylvester at the head and a co-worker struggling with the tail, they eventually managed to wrestle the serpent into position and get it into the carrier.

"Everybody was so happy," he said.
The snake was taken back to the Humane Society, where Fish and Wildlife workers identified it as a boa constrictor on Monday afternoon, Sylvester said.

He said he suspects that the exotic snake, not a species native to the Virgin Islands, is someone's escaped pet.

Cox said the experience left her rattled.

"You just don't see this type of thing. I'm talking about it and the hairs on my arm are still raising," she said. "To say I am petrified is an understatement."

Sylvester said the snake would not be put up for adoption. A meeting was scheduled with Fish and Wildlife agents on Monday to discuss what might be done with it.