A python that escaped its display at a Bangkok shop was found inside the building on Aug. 4. Camera footage captured a tourist opening the enclosure and laughing with friends before leaving, allowing the snake to get loose.
Here's what to know
The incident occurred at GS Ball Python, a specialist snake breeder shop in Thailand, at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 2, according to SWNS.
The shopkeeper was nearby, looking at his phone with his back to a cap-wearing visitor. Security footage captured the visitor twisting the enclosure's lock open.
The shop's Monday closure meant staff did not learn of the escape until reopening on Aug. 4. The ball python slipped out several hours after the group left.
Bank, the shop's owner, was asked by his business partner whether he had removed the snake.
"He asked whether I had taken the snake out, but I told him I hadn't," Bank said, per SWNS. "That's when we decided to check the CCTV footage."
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More background
Bank could not identify the visitors or say what nationality they were. He said their short visit involved browsing the snake displays, with no purchases or questions about the animals.
Bank interpreted the visitors' behavior as playing around without recognizing how serious it was to open an animal's enclosure. The footage showed them laughing and joking together.
Scared or disoriented animals may be more likely to injure themselves or someone else. Animals that injure people may be euthanized, regardless of whether they were provoked.
"Fortunately, the snake never left the shop. Because the shop was completely closed, it remained inside the building." Bank said. "If it had escaped outside the shop, the situation could have been far more difficult and potentially dangerous."
What's being done?
Staff located the snake inside the shop between about 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Aug. 4.
Bank blamed the escape on the visitors' interference with the locked display. Suspecting the tourists had already left Thailand, he found them hard to trace and decided not to report the incident.
"Even so, opening someone else's animal enclosure is extremely irresponsible," he said.
Where can I learn more?
Other python escapes and unexpected encounters have unfolded in Thailand and abroad.
• In Thailand, car wash workers discovered a nearly four-meter python camouflaged behind their workplace.
• In Japan, police searched a neighborhood after two pythons escaped an unlocked apartment cage.
• A patient's pet ball python got loose in an Indiana hospital's emergency room.
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