Video: Colorado police officer finds live rattlesnake during car search

Officer finds live rattlesnake while searching car

When a police officer with the Wheat Ridge Police Department in Colorado began searching a vehicle after he said he saw drug paraphernalia in plain sight, he never expected to find a live rattlesnake inside.

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - A Colorado police officer was left rattled on Sunday night when he searched a car for drugs and instead came face to face with a live rattlesnake, authorities said.

The officer’s body-worn camera captured the moment he opened a large plastic bin in the backseat of a car and found a live rattlesnake cocking its head back and feverishly rattling its tail, the Wheat Ridge Police Department said on Tuesday.

"Yo, you got a rattlesnake in here?" the officer can be heard saying on his body-worn camera as he quickly closes the lid. "What the f--- dude! Are you f---ing kidding me? There’s a live rattlesnake in this bin."

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The officer had been checking park trailheads at 11:30 p.m. when he saw a car with drug paraphernalia in plain sight, police said.

Courtesy: Wheat Ridge Police Department

The vehicle’s owner – who was not in the car at the time – was dropped off at the scene by an Uber around the same time, according to the department. The vehicle owner told the officer that he had lent the car to a friend and was told to pick the car up at that location.

After the car owner gave the officer consent to search the vehicle, police said the officer found drugs, a gun and a large plastic bin, inside which the officer came face to face with the venomous reptile.

The car owner appeared just as stunned as the officer at the wild discovery.

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"Does he have any other things that might bite me?" the officer asks the car owner before he continues to search the vehicle.

Police said no charges will be recommended against the vehicle owner, though officers are still trying to contact the friend, as authorities still have "a lot of questions."

Officers seized the drugs and gun, but told the car owner to take the rattlesnake to a 24-hour veterinarian, FOX 31 Denver reported.