Man Finds 9ft Python in His House, Scared for Children

A father feared for his children's safety after discovering a 9-foot python slithering around their house.

Snake catcher Nick Evans—who owns a snake removal service in the Durban area of South Africa—was called at about 9.30 p.m by a resident who spotted the python on a roadside in Cato Ridge, surrounded by houses.

The snake catcher arrived to the scene to remove the serpent, but long grass and bushes meant the creature was difficult to spot.

Evans and other locals joined in the search using cell phones and torches but "no python was to be found."

"I was concerned for its well-being, and the domestic animals of course," Evans said in a Facebook post. "One man there lived across the road from where it was seen. He was very stressed about the lives of his children, although they wouldn't really be at risk."

African pythons are some of the longest snakes in the country. They live in the grasslands of southern Africa and typically grow between 10 and 16 feet in length.

Pythons are non-venomous, meaning a bite will not kill a human but could cause a nasty injury. However, bites from the species are incredibly rare. The species attacks by coiling around its prey and suffocating it. Their mouths are attached to their jaw by flexible ligaments meaning they can swallow prey much wider than themselves.

There have been some cases where particularly huge python species—such as the reticulated python, which lives in Southeast Asia—have been known to swallow humans whole.

However, this is extremely rare, and African pythons tend to be a lot smaller than these species.

After a long time of searching, Evans headed home, still not having found the python.

But at 11.30 p.m. the same man that first alerted him called again.

"The stressed-out homeowner, had found the snake, by his house! Of course it had to end up that way. I made a quick u-turn," Evans said.

Evans found the python hiding in an incredibly dense plant with loads of thorns on the homeowner's fence.

Upon getting a closer look at the serpent, Evans noticed it has recently feasted on a large prey item due to its bulging stomach.

"What it was, I'm not sure. Either two large chickens, maybe one of the numerous dogs living on the street," Evans said. "We had to be really, really careful, as I did not want the snake regurgitating its meal. That would be a waste of the life of whatever it ate, and, this python wasn't the healthiest looking. She needed the meal."

Locals helped the snake catcher gently remove the python, so that it did not regurgitate its meal.

Evans released the snake back into the wild in an area away from humans.

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