A routine oil change for one Lake St. John, Louisiana, resident turned into a breath-taking experience Tuesday for her and an oil-change technician at Mississippi Auto Direct in Natchez, Mississippi.

When the technician, Travis Bradley, opened the hood of the gray Mitsubishi he found an large timber rattlesnake coiled up and sitting in the corner in front of the steering wheel on the driver’s side.

“It really shook me up,” Bradley said. “This was the first time I had ever seen a rattlesnake underneath the hood of someone’s car.”

Sadie Easom, who owns the Mitsubishi in which the snake sought refuge, said the experience took 10 years off her life.

“I don’t like snakes, period!” Easom said. “Rattlesnakes are dangerous, and they are crawling around here near Lake St. John. I just hope it doesn’t happen again.”

A Mississippi Auto Direct manager called Natchez Animal Control Officer Randy Myers to retrieve the snake from the car.

“I have been on the job for eight years, and I have only come in contact with a couple of poisonous snakes in the city limits,” Myers said, adding he removed the rattlesnake from the car and placed it into a cage. “I took the snake to a place where it would be safe (and released it),” Myers said.

Editor’s note: We have edited this story to remove what we believe was incorrect information provided by one of the sources regarding the size of the rattlesnake. One of the sources said the snake was larger than the known world record, thus we believe that may be incorrect.