World of the Bizarre

Woman returns from holiday with snake in shoe

By T.K. Randall
February 25, 2019

Image: Murray Darling Carpet Python
Credit: Scarlet23 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) 72-year-old Moira Boxall from Sterling, Scotland had traveled all the way home from Queenland, Australia without realizing that a snake had taken up residence inside her luggage.

She first became aware of the reptile when it woke her up in the early hours of the morning.

"Three weeks ago I was woken up in the middle of the night with a crash in my bedroom," she said. "I saw a snake on the floor slithering along by a skirting board, it had knocked a plant pot over."

After an extensive search of the house however, no sign of the elusive serpent could be found.It wasn't until around two weeks later that she discovered to her horror that the snake had been hiding inside one of the shoes that she had taken home from Australia in her luggage.

"I was in an awful state of shock," she said.

Fortunately the snake, which turned out to be a non-venomous spotted python, was quickly caught by a handler from the Scottish SPCA and taken away to be rehomed.

"I had been travelling for about 48 hours from Mackay to Glasgow, with a few stops in between," said Moira. "It must have lived without food, but I heard sometimes they can go into hibernation."

"It was in my suitcase all that time in the hold, it must have been very cold."

Source: Scotsman

Tags: Snake