Slithering threat

Drunk driver threatens police with snake
AFP
November 14, 2006

AN angry motorist threatened police with a live snake after he was pulled over on suspicion of drink driving in the Northern Territory, police said.

The driver grabbed the unusual weapon off the road after being stopped in the rugged Northern Territory, the home of all manner of deadly creatures including a host of poisonous snakes and voracious crocodiles.

"The driver allegedly armed himself with a live snake, pointed the head of the reptile at them and threatened them," police said in a statement on the incident that occurred in Darwin on Saturday.

The motorist picked up the snake after officers who noticed him swerving along a street pulled him over for a breath test, which showed his alcohol level to be 0.131, over the legal limit of 0.08.

The officers told the man to drop the snake, but he ran into the bush still carrying the slithering threat.