Drivers in Naples, Florida, called police Tuesday night to report the kind of road incident that you don’t see every day, but would like to. They reported that a man who had been driving his PT Cruiser erratically then crashed into a series of barricades before finally coming to a stop. The man got out of his car, wrestled briefly with a snake, and then got back in his car — with the snake — and drove off.
Authorities tracked the car to the home of Courtland Page Johnson, 30, and his pet snake, age unknown. He first told police that he had crashed into another car that had stopped short in front of him, but later admitted that he had been driving with his snake wrapped around his neck and that he panicked when it started to bite him.
The fact that Johnson was driving a PT Cruiser and wearing a neck-snake really made this sound to me like something out of a ZZ Top video. If anyone comes up with a mugshot involving a lengthy beard and cheap sunglasses, please forward.
Though Johnson had not injured anyone, and had provided entertainment for amateur humor writers and their audiences across the country, he was still charged with leaving the scene of an accident.