Caught on camera: Snake pops out from under car's hood

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - You've heard of snakes on a plane, but how about snakes on your windshield?

"Surprised, but at the same time I was driving, so there was no way I was going to panic because I didn't want to get in an accident," Layrd Mahler said.

That's exactly what happened to Layrd Mahler when he was driving down Shea Boulevard on Monday morning.

At first, he didn't know exactly who his stowaway was.

"I see a little head pop up and I thought, 'oh, rodent, maybe lizard,'" he said.

But it quickly became clear.

"And then I saw an entire body of a snake pop up, so I'm waiting and I'm like, 'rattlesnake baby, rattlesnake?'" he said.

Thankfully, Layrd didn't see a rattle and could breathe a sigh of relief, and the next step was to document what he was seeing.

"I was just like 'now what do I do?" he said. "So of course in the day of tech, I took out my phone and I start filming it and I take pictures of it."

After finding a safe spot to pull over, Layrd went to check on the little guy, but the hitch hiker had other plans.

"It actually wrapped itself around the wiper, went back down into the engine," he said. "I pulled over, opened it up, looked for him, so not I'm driving with some very friendly snake traps in my car."