Snake travels 15,000km in a shoe from Australia to Scotland
A Scottish woman has experienced the horror of her life after a long flight from Australia. Moira Boxall discovered a python snake in her shoe. The stowaway who had traveled as much as 15,000 kilometers in the biggest secret, was fortunately not toxic.
The spotted python might have been skilfully hidden in Mackay, a town in the Australian state of Queensland where the wife was visiting her family. “A few days before she left, she thought she had seen a snake in her room. She even woke me up at three o’clock at night to check that there was no animal. We combed the entire room and there was no sign of it. Still, the snake must have been there, but it was hidden in her shoe,” her son-in-law Paul Airlie explains.
At first, she thought that my wife and I had hidden a snake in her shoe as a joke until she touched the beast and moved it
Son in law Paul
“In one way or another, the animal came from Mackay in Glasgow without being discovered,” the son-in-law continues. “She first thought that my wife Sarah and I had hidden a snake in her shoe as a joke until she touched the beast and moved it.”
The woman immediately took the shoe with her hose to her garden and placed a box over it.
“She immediately phoned us and also immediately alerted the RSPCA (the British animal protection),” says Paul. “We had to explain that the snake came from Australia and that it might be a toxic specimen. Fortunately, we quickly found out that it was a spotted python, and it turns out not to be toxic. So it could have been worse.”
Quarantine
Moira got help from a friend, who unpacked the rest of her travel bag because the fear of a second snake is firmly in place. On the pictures, you can see that the snake has been molested during the long journey. The beast is currently still in quarantine and will soon be housed in a zoo in Glasgow.
“I am not yet sure that my mother-in-law will return to Australia soon. She said that she is not ready to come back for the time being, but I suspect she will ever do that – she will first have to think about it,” son-in-law Paul concludes.
