h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a bloke who moved here from England about a year ago to work for the company, and he had been renting a house not far from the office while he found a house to buy.

Ok, nothing strange so far.

He keeps a few snakes as pets. Not my cup of tea, but whatever floats his boat, as they say

Anyway, he bought a house and moved out of the rented place a couple of months ago.

Again, nothing particularly abnormal about any of this yet.

Well, his ex-landlady phoned one of the managers in the office on Tuesday morning (because he didn't leave any contact details with her when he moved out) to inform us that there were four police cars called to the house in the middle of the night! The new tenant, apparently having fallen asleep at his computer, woke at about 3am to find a snake crawling over him! (I know, snakes don't crawl, but I can't think of the right word!)

Apparently the snake got 'lost' during the move, but our hero didn't seem too bothered... It appears that it is illegal to lose a snake and fail to inform the police.

Also, the animal welfare ambulance was called to the scene, because no-one at the time had any idea if the snake was poisonous or not, so they are going to charge him £50 for the pleasure.

After a manager relayed this tale to him, he nonchalantly told us that he actually had three snakes. One was lost (but is now found, presumably to the profound shock of the poor tenant!) and the other two were gathered up when he moved house. Unfortunately, one of those two went missing between the old house and the new one.

So if anyone sees a snake loose about the Antrim area... it's probably not poisonous, but since he moved house a few months ago, it might be hungry...

I'm not entirely sure how I would react to finding a snake in my house in the wee hours of the morning, but I imagine there would be more than an animal welfare ambulance called to the scene!

No-one in the office can work out what sort of person can lose a snake in a rented house and fail to think it might be important to let the owner know, especially when they vacate the premises.

We just hope the other missing snake isn't hiding under a server in the office!

Juat in case anyone might be worried about the missing snake, it turned up this morning...

...on the roof of the house!

That poor tenant must be at his wit's end

Hi.

Glad to read that snake found.

Hope new tennant got over the shock, or is it now late tennant just in case there is a return visit.

videokids

Oh dear, I've been busy and not had time to log in for ages...

We were in the office one Friday afternoon shortly after the third snake had been spotted when the animal welfare person arrived, with the snake in a box, to return it to its rightful owner

Unfortunately, the owner was not here, and no-one else was brave enough to offer to look after poor creature until he returned. I think they were reunited eventually, and are living happily ever after.

As far as I know, the tenant survived the encounter, but there was no news as to whether he is still the current tenant or not. I know I would be long gone if it were me...

Yes RL gets like that, Rushed off your feet one minuet, then hey!
what can I do next, apart from twiddle my thumbs.

Pleased that snake and owner are now reunited, hope he takes more care this time.

I too would have been long gone.

Oh ,my dear!I will contact you if i find it!