Poppy Bilderbeck
A woman was forced to call the RSPCA after she found a snake trying to sneak into her house while she was having a snooze.
I'm not ashamed to say at the age of 22 I sometimes go to bed with a light on if I've heard a rustling outside my bedroom window.
The prospect of someone breaking in while you're living in a UK city is a real and scary possibility, whether it be a human, fox or now apparently even a snake.
But one unfortunate woman in Basildon, Essex got the fright of her life when she woke up from a nap to find the beady eyes of a three-foot reptile staring at her from her bedroom window.
Upon waking up to find the snake halfway through her open window on 8 October, the woman took a quick photograph of it before immediately - as most of us would - sprinting out of the room.
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She called The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), who sent animal rescue officer Enola Evans to the scene.
However, when Evans arrived at the property, the snake was nowhere in sight.
Evans searched the bedroom where the snake was first spotted high and low, but couldn't find the slithering creature anywhere.
She told the BBC: "As the window had been open for so long, it was getting quite chilly in there, so I decided to shut it.
"That's when I spotted something moving. It was the snake, coiled around the window's rim - he had been very well-hidden, so I was really pleased to find him."
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The snake was identified as a three-foot long corn snake.
Thankfully, corn snakes are considered mostly harmless and are often kept as pets in the UK.
While corn snakes 'flick their tongue frequently and have clear, bright eyes,' their favourite snack is mice, or sometimes quails or rats, so there's not much of a chance of them eyeing up us humans, as per the RSPCA's corn snake page.
If they do bite - which they only tend to do 'under stress or if they smell food' - then there's little worry either as they're not venomous.
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However, Evans noted it's 'not every day you get woken up by a snake trying to get into your bedroom through a window' and the homeowner was understandably 'terribly shocked'.
Evans then set about removing the snake from the property, 'gently' transferring the reptile into 'a carrier'.
The animal rescue officer took the snake to an expert boarding facility.
The RSPCA believe the snake may be a lost pet and hope its rightful owners will come forward so they can be reunited with the reptile.
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If no owners are found, the corn snake is expected to be put up for adoption.
LADbible has contacted the RSPCA for comment.