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Escaped python found in Swede's loudspeakers

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
Escaped python found in Swede's loudspeakers
Photo: Bo Jonsson/Skansen Aquarium

PICTURES: A Stockholm woman called the police after finding a python in her loudspeakers on Friday. Police were left baffled, and animal experts were called in with a "dead and delicious" treat to lure out the escapee.

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"The woman found it slithering on the floor of her apartment and she called the police, but before they arrived it crept inside a set of speakers," Jonas Wahlström, the managing director of Skansen aquarium, told The Local.
 
Officers on the scene tried to cajole the reptile from its hideout, but were unsuccessful. 
 
"The woman was terrified for real, but we were not scared, we never are," Södermalm police told The Local. 
 
In the end, the officers turned to the animal park for advice. Zookeepers suggested putting the entire speaker in a large bag and delivering the package to the park, and the police did as they were told. 
 
"We then decided to offer the snake a dead, delicious mouse right by the hole of the loudspeaker. It finally poked its head out and we grabbed it," Walhström explained. 
 
The snake turned out to be an Australian carpet python, also known as a diamond python, which are common pets among snake enthusiasts. They aren't venomous, but their tiny sharp teeth can pack a painful punch.
 
Carpet pythons can grow to four metres in length, but are usually half that, and feed on small mammals after suffocating them to death.  Wahlström speculated that the python was an escapee from a neighbour of the Södermalm woman, and had made a break for it in a ventilation shaft. 
 
"They're very good at creeping," he added. 
 
Any snake-fearing Stockholmers, however, have little to worry about. Wahlström explained that such cases only crop up once or twice a year.
 
As for the snake, the police have labelled it "lost goods", meaning the owner is free to collect it from the zoo. If no owner shows up, the snake will find a new home at Skansen or will be donated to another animal park. But there's one place it's sure not to end up.
 
"We asked the woman if she wanted to keep it, and she just said 'Absolutely not'," Wahlström told The Local with a chuckle. 
 

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