Shopkeepers discover python in attic (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Siddinton shopkeepers discover python in attic

12:00pm Friday 4th November 2011 in News By Andrea Glennon

SHOPKEEPERS in Siddington had the shock of their life after discovering this slippery customer had been living alongside them for more than a month.

Anne Gibbons, 47, told the Standard this week how she and husband Peter, 49, who own Siddington Premier Stores and Post Office in Ashton Road, recoiled in horror when they spotted a fully grown python with its body wrapped around a beam in their attic.

The Darwin carpet python called Dawkins had escaped from a neighbour's tank and it is believed the sneaky serpent had made itself at home in the Gibbons' loft for more than a month.

Anne said: "I was so nervous when we found it - I couldn't believe it. I didn't want it in my attic a second longer even though I'd been living with it for over a month. But once I knew it was there it had to go.

"Peter was very jittery and neither of us wanted to touch it. We were going to call the RSPCA but Peter tracked down the owner, who had since moved to Oxford, and she came back and took it away."

Darwin carpet pythons are not venomous and constrict their prey. They can grow up to several feet long.

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