A deadly python was feared to be on the loose at a chippy – only for hapless staff to be told it was a harmless baby corn snake.
Worried workers at the fish and chip shop found the serpent in a back room.
They bravely managed to catch it and alerted the RSPCA.
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But when they arrived they told them it wasn’t a python – which can grow up to 16ft long.
They can kill humans and large mammals by constricting them and are found in Africa and Asia.
In fact it was a tiny, corn snake – harmless to people – and often kept us pets in the UK.
It was an escaped pet and luckily was then returned to its owner, as reporter on What’s The Jam.
The blunder happened in Greenwich, south east London last Wednesday (9 Jul).
Adam Tasker, RSPCA Animal Rescue Officer, said: “The takeaway staff were very scared and took me out to a back room.
“Where they had safely contained the snake.
“They’d described him as a python, but he was actually a juvenile corn snake – a non-venomous species that is often kept as a pet.”
Local Charlotte Reid said: “Corn snakes are harmless.”
Laura-Kate Slee added: “I’d literally have a heart attack if I saw a snake just hanging out.”
Ed Santos said: “Why on earth do people have snakes as pets?
“Crazy people.”
He added: “I’d noticed there were lots of flats above the shop so I suspected he was an escaped pet so I put up a lost and found poster.
“By the next day, we had a response from a concerned owner whose son had lost their snake a couple of weeks before.
“After asking them a few questions about the size and markings of their snake, I was very happy that this matched the description of the rescued reptile.
“Having feared the worst, the snake’s owner was over the moon that he had been found.
“I later met the snake’s owner and safely returned him into their care with some advice about fitting a lock to the vivarium to prevent future escapes.
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