Man surprised and his sister hospitalised after 3ft-long snake found dangling from oven

A man from Halliwell in Bolton, Greater Manchester, found a 3ft-long snake dangling from his oven on Wednesday evening. David Atherton, 65, had left his oven on to preheat, and was opening it to put on some food, when he saw the reptile hanging at its side. As he watched, the black and white snake, now identified as a banded California king, fell onto the floor and curled up. Mr Atherton said: “When I pulled down the oven door this black and white thing was hanging down from the side of it.



“It was about an inch thick and at first I thought it was part of a packet, but then I realised it was a snake. There is a small gap between the oven and the fitted cupboards, which must be what it came through. You could not make it up. It is not something that happens every day.” Mr Atherton put the snake in a plastic food recycling box, and when police arrived it was moved to an empty bin for safekeeping.

RSPCA officers later retrieved the snake and the escapee has found a temporary home with Atherton conservationist and reptile enthusiast Crocodile Joe. Mr Atherton’s sister Margaret Meadows, who is in her seventies, has a huge phobia of snakes and suffers from heart problems. While she did not see the snake, after hearing about what happened she became distressed and was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital, where she remains in a stable condition.



Mr Atherton added: “Her phobia is so bad she cannot even look at a snake on TV, let alone see one in real life. I would not like to hazard a guess as to what would have happened if she had been the one to open the oven and see it. It could have been much worse. Nobody is saying Margaret is in hospital as a direct result of what happened, it is not what put her in hospital, but obviously it hasn’t helped either.” Crocodile Joe, who said that banded California king snakes can grow up to 6ft in length and as thick as a broom handle, said the Halliwell escapee was a “beautiful” specimen.”