The slithering surprise (Credit: Cunninghame Furniture Recycling)
Charity shop staff were stunned when an unexpected donation fell out of a second-hand sofa.
A python gave the staff a fright after emerging at Cunninghame Furniture Recycling (CFRC).
The not-for-profit upcycling centre based in Irvine, 40 minutes from Glasgow on the Scottish coast, saves unwanted furniture from landfill.
Staff were cleaning the sofa to get it ready for a new home.
They said their ‘soul left their body’ when the giant reptile suddenly fell out from within the cushions.
Spokesman for CFRC Scott Mould said: ‘Nothing like this has ever happened before.
‘People keep these animals as pets but the customer who donated the sofa to us confirmed they had gotten it second hand, and had never kept snakes.
‘So it could have been the previous owner, and the snake had been in there all this time.’
After posting images on social media, people suggested the snake was a royal python, a species native to West and Central Africa.
Sadly, a common risk to staff at the centre were needles, but they do not expect ‘a snake to pop up’, Scott continued.
‘It is quite unusual and definitely quite an odd one! We disposed of it as it is not something you want lying about,’ he said.
Found in the wild in the tropics in Asia and Africa, pythons can grow up to 33 feet.
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