A woman came face to face with THREE FOOT long boa constrictor snake while cleaning out a second hand car she bought online.
Charlie Wise, 23, had picked up the £200 pounds Volkswagen golf car after seeing it advertised and found the coiled up snake in the boot.
At first she thought it was a rubber toy, but when she and husband Guy saw it flick its tongue, she slammed the boot shut and ran away.
The 23-year-old nursery worker said: "I bought a car, come home to clean it out to find a huge live snake in the boot.
"It's huge and scary. We screamed and slammed the boot."
A friend of Mrs Wise came and wrapped the snake in a towel before it was taken to a nearby reptile rescue centre.
Mrs Wise rang the seller Christopher Morrison, of Bracknell, Berks., who told her he had lost the three-year-old snake two months ago.
The roofer and reptile collector said he was moving the snake in a cage to a friends house when it vanished.
The 29-year-old said: "I lost it a couple of months ago.
"I did have it in a cage and was moving it to my mates. It got out.
"I checked everywhere. I had ripped that car to pieces. I thought it must have got out. I wouldn't leave it."
His heavily pregnant girlfriend, Sammi Larkins, who co-owned the car, added: "We wouldn't have sold it if we thought it was in there."
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