A NORTHFIELD family who found the escaped snake in Ley Hill Park were out blackberry picking at the time.
Tom Gallant, his wife Jenna, their three-year-old daughter Eden and newborn son Oliver had gone out for a family walk yesterday (Tuesday).
Prior to their stroll, Jenna had said to Tom: “Watch out, there’s a snake on the loose.”
Tom said: “I told her we’d have no chance of seeing it – ‘it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack’.”
They had asked Eden where she wanted to go and she said the ‘owl bench’ – a seat with an owl carved into it.
Tom said: “It’s a place we used to take her to when she was younger – she’s always loved it there.”
When they got there, Tom had noticed a bounty of blackberries and suggested they pick some.
Tom added: “My wife pointed and said: ‘look, there’s the snake’. I thought she was joking but when I turned around, there it was behind the bench.
“It was lucky we had come the way we had as if we’d come from the other side, Eden may have stepped on it.”
Tom put out a message to their neighbourhood’s WhatsApp group and asked what he should do. Several people replied and told him to contact the RSPCA but he was struggling to find the right number.
“It was then one of the WhatsApp members – who is from South Africa and has handled many snakes – messaged that he would come down.
“He arrived and just picked it up and then asked me if I wanted to hold it.
“I was unsure, but he said it would be fine as the snake was cold, did not have a lot of energy and was no danger so I let him hand it to me.”
After that, the man went off with the snake, identified as a ball python, and said he was going to take it to the RSPCA.
The slippery fugitive had been ‘at large’ for almost a fortnight and there had been concerns that it may not survive.
Tom added: “A lot of people had avoided going to the park as they didn’t want to encounter it with their children and dogs.
“It was incredible to find it – I’m just glad we managed to find it and it was not someone who would have caused it any harm.”
