A North Carolina Farmer Thought He Saw a Fence Post. It Was a Missing Boa Constrictor.

HOKE COUNTY, N.C., Nov. 7, 2026 — Richard Wood was working on a fence when he spotted what looked like a post somebody had dropped. Closer look. Not a post.

"Lo and behold, it wasn't a fence post; it was a snake," Wood told WRAL.

The snake was a 6-to-7-foot boa constrictor that had been missing since early October in the Calloway Road area near Raeford. Hoke County Animal Shelter had warned residents to watch for it. Wood's farm is on the same road, and he said the owner had lived just a few doors down. UPI reported that the owner had moved out of town and left the snake with his father when it escaped.

Wood had been telling his wife the missing boa could not still be alive nearby. She had been worrying about it. "Lo and behold, she was right, and I was wrong, so that's not unusual," he told WRAL.

Animal control said it would take about 30 minutes to arrive, so Wood called a friend who raises large snakes. The advice was that it probably would not bite. Wood and his daughter, Peyton, still took the careful route: she got the tail, he got the head, and the boa went into a Rubbermaid container. Animal control later arrived with wrangler Matthew "Mountain Matt" George to take the snake.

Wood said he is not suddenly in the market for a boa of his own. One detail still missing: nobody involved seemed to know the snake's name.