Python dumped outside second-hand shop in Arnhem

Staff at a second-hand shop in Arnhem were shocked when they arrived at work last week to find a 1.5 metre (5ft) python had been dumped on their doorstep.

The slippery customer was left in a plastic box lined with wood shavings and with holes for ventilation outside a branch of used goods chain 2Switch in Arnhem, and discovered when workers arrived on Friday morning.

“It was a big snake and I think he’s beautiful,” Victoria, the staff member who found the creature, told Omroep Gelderland.

Other colleagues were less enthusiastic. “The creature was calm, but our colleagues still didn’t dare to walk across the office,” another said.

An animal ambulance crew arrived an hour and a half later and took away the snake. It is thought it may be a reticulated python, some species of which can grow to up to 7 metres (23ft) long.