A man in Australia doing post-holiday shopping discovered he had picked up an unexpected hitchhiker.
According to Yahoo News, the man was walking to his vehicle on Dec. 27 after finishing some shopping in Brisbane, Queensland, and spotted an eastern brown snake slithering under the hood of his car.
The snake species is “highly venomous,” according to Snake Catchers Brisbane & Gold Coast, a 24/7 snake removal service, who responded to the call about the eastern brown snake hiding in the car.
Because the vehicle’s owner saw the snake slip under the hood, the man didn’t want to start the car and risk hurting or aggravating the snake. Instead, he contacted the experts at Snake Catchers Brisbane & Gold Coast so the business could send a handler to his car to catch and relocate the reptile.
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“This Eastern Brown Snake (highly venomous) was safely relocated by our Snake Catcher Luke, after being spotted in a car in Murarrie! The snake had made its way here by climbing up from the underside of the engine,” the snake-catching service posted on Facebook about the incident.
The Dec. 27 post also included two photos of the snake. In both shots, the yellow-brown reptile peers out from inside the car.
“It’s not overly common for a snake to be found in a car, but it happens,” Willow Sorbello of Snake Catchers Brisbane & Gold Coast told Yahoo News.
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The expert believes the reptile might have sought refuge inside the car because it was the closest place to hide and stay warm, but added the snakes often “move on quickly” after resting in a vehicle.
Related: Snake Hiding in Bed Bites Woman While She’s Fluffing Pillows: ‘It Did Leave Teeth Marks’
According to the Australian Museum, the eastern brown snake is one of Australia’s most frequently encountered snakes because the species’ “natural range happens to include some of the most populated parts of the country.”
A man in South Africa had his own surprising snake encounter. In November, a man from Stellenbosch, South Africa, returned home to find a cape cobra coiled under a pillow on his bed. An expert also removed and relocated the snake in this case.
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