Australian man had huge python living in his toilet

A Territory man got the fright of his life - and learnt he should keep the toilet seat down - when he found a huge python in his toilet. Erik Rantzau has been avoiding using his indoor loo - opting to use his outdoor toilet when nature calls - since he discovered the wild carpet python in the S-bend about four weeks ago.

"I just happened to be walking past the toilet and glanced in there and here was this snake in a massive coil just sitting up in the toilet,'' he said. "He was that big that he physically blocked the pipes.''



"He stayed in for four days then went out in the garden again for a week or two then appeared in there again one Saturday night. I got (the snake catcher) out a few times but he kept getting away. I didn't use the toilet - I just kept the lid down and went to another toilet I have outside.''

NT snake wrangler Chris Peberdy had been out to Mr Rantzau's home on Lowther Rd, Virginia, in Darwin's rural area four times trying to catch the python. But each time he would try and get his hands on it, the slippery reptile would evade capture by disappearing into the depths of the pipes.



Mr Peberdy said it was rare to find a carpet python in a toilet. "It's quite unusual he's living in the toilet,'' he said. He's not going in there for food. He's obviously going in there because it's a good place to hide. But it would certainly give anyone a fright - it'd scare the pants off you, well, you've probably already got you're pants off, but it'd scare you if you found it.''

He had one piece of advice to Top Enders: "Look before you sit!'' Mr Rantzau, 49, said it was relief the snake was gone as the last thing he wanted was to have the same fate as a tourist who was bit on his manhood by a deadly brown snake during a roadside toilet stop in north Queensland earlier this year.