Pensioner tells of shock after finding 3ft snake hiding in his toilet

A terrified pensioner was confronted with a 3ft snake when he went to the toilet. Dennis Mulholland, 67, thought at first that the reptile was a toy that had been left on the loo as a joke. But when it turned round and looked at him, he bolted out of the bathroom and dialled 999. Dennis said: "I walked into my bathroom and I saw something sitting between the wall and the toilet.

"It looked like a snake but I thought someone had left it there as a prank and it was just a toy. I got the remote for the television and gave it a poke. The second it touched it, the snake turned its head and stared right at me. I was off like a shot. I just slammed the door and ran out. I called the police but the two officers were too scared to move the snake, so they phoned the SSPCA."


Photo from here.

Dennis, who lives in a flat in Paisley, got another surprise when he called on upstairs neighbour Darren Hendry. The pensioner said: "I chapped Darren's door to ask if I could use his toilet because there was a snake in my bathroom. I couldn't believe it when he told me, 'The snake's mine'." Darren, 25, said the California king snake called Mad Max had escaped from a tank in his flat more that a month ago.

He added: "I think the snake must have gone through a gap behind my toilet and into the drainage system before going down into Dennis's flat." Darren thinks Mad Max, who is not venomous, put himself into hibernation while he was AWOL to conserve energy and stay warm. The snake is skinnier now and has clearly been missing his weekly meal of a dead rat. Mad Max is now safely back in his tank, where he is continuing his recovery.