A woman was left stunned after she found an eight-foot boa constrictor in her bathroom sparking a police operation to remove it from her home.
The horrifying discovery made by the woman, who did not own a snake, at a first-floor flat in Birkenhead, Merseyside, just after 1am on December 30, 2019.
Merseyside Police officers were left "flabbergasted" on the find which had wrapped itself around bathroom fittings, reports the Liverpool Echo .
Police say neither the woman or her neighbour knew where the snake - which is not thought to be venomous - had come from.
When efforts to enlist snake experts fell flat, police called upon colleague, Constable Chris Eastwood, from the Matrix team.
A spokeswoman said: "Constable Eastwood has knowledge of snakes and handling them and when he arrived confirmed it was a boa constrictor.
"He was able to calmly approach the reptile, which had wrapped itself around the bathroom sinks and taps, and after giving it a drink of water was able to coax it to unravel itself so that he could put it into a large, safe container."
Constable Eastwood made arrangements to have the snake temporarily housed at a local pet rescue facility.
The Merseyside Police spokeswoman joked: "The snake has been temporarily rehomed and is doing well - the rest is hiss-tory."
The boa constrictor is a member of the family Boidae, found in tropical North, Central, and South America, as well as some islands in the Caribbean.
