Police Baffled After Massive Boa Constrictor Found Abandoned Inside Target Shopping Cart

Shoppers at a Target store in Iowa were taken aback on Saturday after discovering a six-foot-long snake in a shopping cart.

The Sioux City Police Department told local station KCAU that animal control was dispatched to the store on Sunnybrook Drive around 11:30 a.m. following a report of a Colombian red-tailed boa.

The reptile was found in a shopping cart situated in one of the cart corrals, as per the news station. The snake had gone unnoticed until it was already inside the store. The station reports that the police were uncertain whether the creature was discovered by a customer or an employee.

Based on additional reports, animal control officers suspect the snake was deliberately placed in the cart.

According to a fact page from the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin, Colombian red-tailed boas have a lifespan of approximately 20 years in the wild, extending to around 40 years when cared for by humans. Males can grow anywhere from 6 to 8 feet, while females can attain lengths of 7 to 9 feet. These boas primarily feed on rodents, birds, iguanas, and monkeys, and are native to Mexico and Central America.

The zoo's information further details, "The boa’s loosely hinged jaws can be stretched far apart, enabling it to swallow animals with bodies much larger in diameter than the boa’s head."