Weird World: snake rears ugly head in toilet bowl

A Shropshire boy was sitting on the loo when a two-and-a-half foot snake reared out of the toilet bowl. Daniel Peate, 11, slammed the lid and called for his dad as the reptile tried to escape, reports the Mirror. Daniel said: "I had the fright of my life when it poked its head up. I jumped off, did my trousers up and called for my dad because I thought it might be poisonous. Now every time I need the loo I always look in first to make sure the snake hasn't come back." Dad David, 41, said: "Daniel's a bit of a prankster so I didn't believe him at first." The snake stayed more than 90 minutes and was photographed by the family but vanished back down the drain before the RSPCA arrived. The family, from Ruyton-XI Towns, looked the creature up on the internet and identified it as a non-venomous corn snake from the southern US. Experts think it escaped from a nearby owner or was abandoned and got there along the sewers.