A Florida man on his way to work at a high-end Louis Vuitton store was delayed by a 7-foot boa constrictor lounging in his driveway and an anxious neighbor who told police he was going to shoot it to death with his gun.
Jay Slagle, whose Palm Beach County home abuts a pocket of dense forest, said he initially saw the snake from his second-floor window on March 1 and by the time he got downstairs it had casually stretched out to its full length and appeared in no hurry to go anywhere.
“It was just super mellow,” said Slagle, 65, who until Sunday had lived in his Riviera Beach community for 23 years without any snake encounters.
But it is South Florida, home to a multitude of critters, some invasive, some native and none who understand what it means to be late for a job at an iconic handbag and luxury clothing store.
“My one neighbor was scared. They said you are on your own,” Slagle said. “I’ve got my work clothes on so what am I going to do? It was big. It could easily eat a cat.”
Boa constrictors and Burmese pythons are both invasive species in Florida with pythons having the more harmful impact for now after becoming established in the mid-1980s and eating their way through the Everglades.
A Florida Museum of Natural History website said boa constrictors lived wild in Florida possibly as far back as the 1970s but have only one established breeding population in and around the Charles Deering Estate in Miami.
What is the difference between a boa constrictor and a python?
Python hunter Taylor Stanberry, who won the $10,000 grand prize in the 2025 Florida Python Challenge, identified Slagle’s snake as a boa constrictor after seeing a photo and video of it. Two other reptile experts agreed it was a boa constrictor.
Stanberry also operates a venomous snake relocation program with her husband Rhett Stanberry. She said it can be hard for a lay person to know the differences between one big snake and another.
While pythons have bold, dark blotches on their skin like a giraffe, boa constrictors have more hourglass-shaped markings on skin that is tan, light brown, grayish brown or cream colored.
Stanberry suspects the boa constrictor in Slagle’s driveway was a pet, “and an expensive one.”
Depending on the type, boa constrictors can cost from under $100 to more than $1,000. Boa constrictors are not a prohibited species in Florida, but it is illegal to release non-native animals into the wild.
Slagle said he made several unsuccessful phone calls for help. A neighbor also called police.
“There’s a big a– python in front of my door,” the neighbor said according to the 911 recording. “I’m about to shoot it. I don’t want to get charged with discharging a firearm in a residential area. I’m just saying.”
Slagle was able to shovel the snake into a trash bin with the help of a police officer. He said he estimated it weighed as much as 30 pounds. Riviera Beach Police called a trapper to fetch the snake.
“I put in the Teams chat that I was going to be 10 minutes late to work,” Slagle said about being sidelined by the snake. “They joked that they could make shoes out of it.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida man wrangles 7-foot boa constrictor before heading to work
Reporting by Kimberly Miller, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
