Aussie mum 'shaken for hours' after 'terrifying' discovery in toddler's bed
The woman locked herself in her bathroom as the unwanted guest made it's way around her home.
A mum of four was heard screaming for her life after making a terrifying discovery in her bedroom on the NSW South Coast on Monday afternoon.
“I was laying down on my bed after I had knocked off from work, making a couple of phone calls, when I spotted it out of the corner of my eye,” Allirra Lovelock told Yahoo News Australia, describing the moment she saw a snake at her bedroom door in Dalmeny. “I jumped off my bed and locked myself into the ensuite bathroom, and that’s where I was screaming out the window for help.”
Fortunately, the 31-year-old’s neighbours heard her distress and came running to the rescue.
“There was a lovely lady who had a look around the door entrance before we found the snake under my bed,” Allirra explained. “That’s when I jumped on the bed to get out of the room, closed the door, blocked it off with a towel and got out of the house.”
By the time the young mum poked her head through the bedroom window, the snake — which is believed to be a non-venomous diamond python — had slithered into the toddler bed that her one and two-year-old daughters sleep in.
“Thankfully they were still at day care,” Allirra said, "otherwise it would've been nap time for my babies and they would have been in that bed."
‘The most terrifying experience I've had’
Luckily for the mum, another neighbour — who just “loved snakes” — had also heard her cries for help. “So he just went in there with his snake bag and safely removed it from my babies’ bed,” Allirra explained. “By that time, my other children had arrived home from the bus stop and the neighbour was showing the kids the snake in the bag.”
While it all ended well, and the python was relocated to a farm which Allirra hopes is “far, far away”, the mother of four said she was “shaken up for hours”. “It was the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had!” she told Yahoo News, adding that she believes the snake entered her home through the front door. “I have a massive snake phobia and this was actually really hard for me to deal with. I'm just so grateful that I didn't have my babies at home at the time, because honestly I do not know how I would've handled the situation."
‘How badly that could have gone'
In sharing her experience online, many Facebook users expressed their horror at the incident.
“I love pythons, but how badly that could have gone had bubs been in bed,” one person wrote. “Wow, that’s a little close for comfort!” another said. “Only a python, but still no thanks!” a third added.
When another questioned whether Allirra had screens on her doors and windows, she went on to explain that she is renting the Dalmeny property, but will be speaking to the real estate agent about putting screens on the external doors.
Another snake looking for a snooze
Earlier this year, a woman on the Gold Coast was changing the sheets on her bed when she came across an almost two-metre long eastern brown snake slithering under her doona.
A local snake handler believes the reptile came in through an open door or window looking for shelter, with temperatures that day in March exceeding 30 degrees. “They’ll get under your fridge, they’ll get into all sorts of places, and the bed just looked like a good place to have a snooze,” Zachery Richards told Yahoo News Australia.
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