A baffled mum who ripped her home apart in a frantic search for her son’s 4ft long python has dubbed the snake a “little Houdini” after he escaped from a sealed glass vivarium – slithering out from behind a pair of boots 22 days later.

Sales administrator Sarah Toussaint, 39, turned her house upside down with the help of her IT engineer husband Greg, 40, and sons Ty, 11, and Ryan, nine – removing fridges, emptying food cupboards and even unstitching her sofa, as they searched for Max, the two-year-old serpent.

Fearing the worst when the pet could not be found after three weeks without food or water, suddenly Greg realised some shoes had inexplicably been knocked off their rack in the hallway of their home in Bracknell, Berkshire, while he was at work.

The python went missing for three weeks without the other pets being able to find him (Collect/PA Real Life)

He suddenly spotted the culprit – Max, who was poised in a combative S-shape on top of the shoe-rack – alive, well and ready to pounce, according to Sarah, who said: “Greg didn’t pick him up at first because he looked like he was ready to strike and bite him.

“But Ty did not even think about that, he just said, ‘Oh, my boy, you’re home!’ and picked him up straight away,

“You could see the joy in Ty’s face when he could hold him after all that time,”

Ty was full of joy after Max was found (Collect/PA Real Life)

“Now our house is happy because we have our missing piece back.”

How on earth the slippery customer managed to slither free from his tank still remains a mystery to all concerned.

“He is kept in a glass vivarium with heavy sliding glass panels,” said Sarah.

How Max escaped from the vivarium is still a mystery (Collect/PA Real Life)

“The only way out is to slide them open, but we don’t know how a snake could do that.

“Besides, the door was still closed when we noticed he had escaped, so he must have somehow slid it open and then closed it behind him.

“It sounds a bit weird, but we are still really not sure how he escaped,” she said.

Sarah and Greg with sons Ty (left) and Ryan reunited with the disappearing snake (Collect/PA Real Life)

“Now he has, though, we’ve bought padlocks to make sure he’s extra secure.”

An animal-mad family, they have “a bit of a zoo” of pets, according to Sarah, including two Rottweilers, Diesel and Bali, a turtle called Crush and they will be adding a hedgehog into the mix this month, which they are yet to name, but will be kept well away from Max.

When the snake first went missing, Sarah looked online for the most likely places for a royal python, or ball python like Max to hide, and discovered the breed has a reputation for escaping from tight spots – leading to her branding him Houdini, after the famous escapologist.

Ty is never afraid of picking up Max (Collect/PA Real Life)

“They’re dubbed Houdini snakes because they’re known for getting out without people knowing how they managed it,” said Sarah.

But while all is well that ends well, the ordeal was very upsetting for Ty, …….

Source: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/mum-pulled-house-furniture-apart-6206331