MARY REICHARD, HOST: A Wisconsin man was having a little car trouble one evening. Chris Nguyen said his SUV was running, but he could tell something wasn’t quite right, so he pulled over to the side of the road and popped the hood. He’s no mechanic, but the problem was immediately apparent to him.

Tangled up inside was 4-foot-long python.

Police responded to Nguyen’s call for help. They tried to wiggle the snake free, but eventually called in a snake rescuer to finish up.

It took four hours to get him out safely.

The python’s owner said it had been missing for more than a month. By the way, it’s illegal to have such a snake in his town, so authorities fined the owner 300 bucks. But they made a deal: Pay for the damages to the car, and the ticket goes away.

Oh, and you’ll want to know the nature of the damage, right? (

EICHER: Yeah. 

REICHARD: It was a displaced serpentine belt.

EICHER: No kiddin’.

REICHARD: It’s The World and Everything in It.