Coffee shops or kopitiams have been exploration grounds for various creatures, from rats to civet cats and now even snakes.
Over two days at the end of July, a three-metre-long python hid inside the signboard of a kopitiam at Block 1 Beach Road.
After peeking through a seam, the vendors were shocked to see the reptile holed up within the signboard.
NParks personnel showed up that evening and successfully seized the slippery snake before it could slither away.
Shin Min Daily News reported that at 10pm on Sunday (30 July), a passer-by accidentally kicked a snake lying on the ground next to the coffee shop at Block 1 Beach Road, opposite Golden Mile Complex.
The startled serpent quickly fled, scaling the nearby pillar of the closed coffee shop.
It then scrambled into a seam in the signboard and vanished from sight. The passer-by reported this to Shin Min Daily News.
Source: Atlanta Zoo, for illustration purposes only
The coffee shop vendors opened the kopitiam the next day (31 July) as usual, oblivious to the secluded snake.
A Shin Min reporter arrived that day and informed the employees of the snake’s presence.
Thereafter, curious coffee shop staff searched the signboard by stretching the seam slightly open. Upon doing so, they were shocked to see the sneaky snake inside.
They quickly contacted the coffee shop’s owner, who called NParks.
According to Shin Min Daily News, NParks personnel came to the scene at 6.25pm that day. With a ladder and tools, they pried the particular signboard open.
The signboard depicts large pictures of the classic kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs, almost like a big menu for the python to look at.
Standing on the ladder, a personnel pulled on the python’s tail end with gloved hands, but the persistent predator refused to be pried from its new property.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
With the help of his fellow staff, the NParks personnel managed to prise the python from the sign.
As the situation unfolded, a witness audibly declared, “It’s trying to flee,” in Chinese. Immediately after, the tan-coloured python plunged towards the floor in a panic.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
The reptile seemed to try to navigate its way around an adjacent movable shelf, exposing its full size, which observers pointed out.
NParks estimated the python to be between two to three metres in length.
After some struggle, one personnel eventually gripped onto its tail end while the other used a tool to restrain the snake’s head.
They tugged at it, but the python appeared to panic, so much so that it ended up being snagged under a wheel of the mobile rack.
Perhaps noticing the chaos, a bystander stepped in to lend a hand by lifting the shelf. The NParks personnel were then able to pull the restless reptile free and restrain it.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
An NParks spokesperson stated that the captured Reticulated Python was released into its natural habitat, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Reticulated Pythons are the longest snakes in the world, and can grow up to 10 metres in length, NParks states on its website.
Thankfully, this particular one wasn’t huge enough to send people into a frenzy. Nonetheless, we hope it’s safe in the wild and will not end up lost at a kopitiam again.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook.
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