Man’s midnight feast interrupted by snake in his kitchen

A London man had an unexpected fright recently when he went for a midnight snack and found a snake in his kitchen. Bernard Winchester, 61, was tucking into a sandwich close to midnight, only to notice when he heard a strange sound nearby. "I went down for a midnight snack at about 11.30pm.



"Just as I sat down having a sandwich, I heard a rustling," said Bernard, of South Norwood, south east London, said: "I looked round and only a few feet away was a snake, all coiled up between the cupboard and the wall. I was pretty scared and, as you can imagine, it was rather a shock." Once the shock of the serpentine surprise had faded, Bernard ste about capturing the creature.

'I didn't know what to do at first," he added. "I was naturally nervous about approaching it, but after a while I remembered I had one of those litter grabbers with the long arm and a pincer on the end. So that went round its body and quite gently I lifted it up, found a big plastic box and dropped it in there." With the 2ft snake safely caught, Bernard called the police, who advised him to contact the RSPCA.



He added: "The woman from the RSPCA came round in the morning, though she said it wasn't a grass snake, as I had thought, and said it was a corn snake. She said they're docile and harmless, and often kept as a pet, so it probably belongs to a neighbour. In any event, it's not the kind of thing you expect to find in your kitchen!" The RSPCA has since set up an appeal to find the rightful owner of the snake.