'Could not believe what I was seeing': Driver traces smell under hood to large dead python curled atop battery

A Knoxville driver investigating a mysterious smell got an alarming surprise when he found a large yellow python coiled on top of his SUV's battery box, as WBIR-TV reported.

The startling discovery paired an ordinary car problem with the much bigger issue of what can happen when exotic pets escape or are abandoned.

What happened?

WBIR-TV revealed that before taking his SUV in for maintenance, Jesse Hodge of Knoxville, Tennessee, decided to check out a strange odor on his own. 

After days of noticing the smell, he looked under the hood and found what he believed was a pet python lying motionless in the engine compartment, the outlet shared in a video report.

Hodge recalled opening the hood and seeing the snake for the first time.

"I could not believe what I was seeing," he told WBIR-TV.

In the photos Hodge sent to relatives and later shared with the network, the long yellow snake was wrapped over the battery box. He said his family initially thought he had to be joking.

Young-Williams Animal Center later removed the animal, per WBIR-TV. The center said the python had died, apparently after exposure to cold temperatures, and Hodge told the station he suspects it climbed into the SUV seeking warmth from the engine.

Why does it matter?

The discovery points to a problem caused by people.

Animal center staff said the python was probably either an escaped pet or one that had been intentionally released, according to WBIR-TV. Situations like this show how failures to contain or care for exotic animals can affect more than the owner, putting the animal, nearby families and even local ecosystems at risk.

In this case, the python died. But the situation also could have become a safety issue for Hodge or anyone working on the vehicle.

The incident also reflects broader problems tied to the exotic pet trade. Animals adapted to very different climates can suffer badly when they escape outdoors, while communities are left to deal with the aftermath.

What are people saying?

Hodge's family was taken aback by the discovery.

He told WBIR-TV his daughter was resistant to seeing any more of the saga. His grandson, Seth Hodge, was bewildered that the whole thing was real.

Hodge, meanwhile, seemed most relieved that the python never made it beyond the hood of his SUV.

"I've got a doggy door that goes outside, and I kind of thought, 'that thing could have gone through the doggy door and been right in the house with me," he told WBIR-TV.

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