Police: Reported 'python' at gas station was a garter snake

Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Police in Canada were summoned to a gas station to remove a "python" that turned out to be a tiny garter snake.

The Alberta RCMP tweeted that officers from Cochrane were summoned to a local gas station on a report of a snake on the loose inside the store.

The tweet said the "python" was coaxed out from underneath a display of potato chips and an officer discovered it was actually a small and harmless garter snake, also known as a grass snake.

"That, obviously, is something we don't go to very often," RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Tammy Keibel told Global News. "Animal calls are part of it, but it might be loose horses, cows on the highway, maybe a loose dog."

Keibel said the snake was released "with the understanding that it would not continue to traumatize the humans."