Donald Sakai doesn't usually flip on the light, open the door and check out the garage before his adult son heads out to work shortly before midnight.

But on Thursday night, the 74-year-old Kuli'ou'ou resident did just that. What he saw illuminated between the door and the car was a desperate fugitive — an unwelcome visitor in this state.

"At first I thought, geez, what is that stick doing out there?" Sakai said. "And then it moved."

The stick turned out to be 4-foot long snake — a ball python, Sakai would later learn. The snakes, native to West and West Central Africa, are nonvenomous and common in the Mainland pet trade. They are a type of constrictor, related to boas, that dine on small mammals and birds.

After a failed attempt to talk his spouse into letting him go after the creature with a rake, Sakai shut the door and waited while she called 911.

"It's great they called the police," said Suzanne Case, executive director of the Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i. "That is exactly the right thing to do."

The presence of snakes in Hawai'i would disrupt the state's ecosystem, Case said. Most humans also appreciate their absence.

"We've never had snakes in this state, and that is part of what makes Hawai'i special," she said. "It makes us unique in the world."

That uniqueness, she said, makes some inhabitants of the Islands particularly vulnerable to the reptiles.

"Our very fragile native bird population has no defense against snakes," Case said.

Vigilance, she said, is essential in enforcing the state's ban against the creatures.

"It takes people understanding and complying with our laws," she said. "It takes strong inspections at our ports and airports.

"This snake would likely have been smuggled in," she said. "This snake was likely somebody's pet."

Sakai said the police arrived and called inspectors from the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture.

"This guy came out, spotted it under the car and decided it wasn't venomous," Sakai said. "So he crawled under there and lifted it out. Made it look so easy."

The python was taken to the agriculture department's plant quarantine branch, where it was recovering yesterday from Thursday's late-night excitement. The snake will be sent to a reptile farm in Florida via an agreement with the Honolulu Zoo. The reptile farm will then place the python in a zoo or educational facility.

People harboring illegal animals may take advantage of the state's amnesty program, agriculture department officials said. The animals may be turned in to any state agriculture office, to the Honolulu Zoo or to any humane society office, and no questions will be asked.

People with information about illegal animals may call the state's pest hotline at 586-7378.