{Wes note: There's of photo of the snake at the URL below}

THE AGE (Melbourne, Australia) 07 April 05 It's hiss and slither as city snakes go AWOL (Rachel Kleinman)
Photo: Snake handler Simon Watharow with the escaped python. (John Woudstra)
Two escaped snakes caused alarm in Melbourne suburbs this week.
A pet python was captured by police in a St Kilda park on Tuesday night, sparking an ownership dispute, while a boa constrictor on a footpath in Melbourne's east terrified an elderly woman at the weekend.
Licensed snake handler Simon Watharow is looking after the two-metre python while he tried to verify its ownership.
"There are at least two very determined sets of people who swear black and blue it is theirs," Mr Watharow said.
Caulfield Sergeant Rod Stormonth took custody of the snake, indigenous to northern Australia, on Tuesday.
A Phillip Island wildlife park, which had an olive python stolen on Monday, claimed ownership of the escapee, as did several other people. Mr Watharow said he would check distinguishing features on the snake to establish the correct owner.
"Sometimes (the snakes) have a bit of scarring, a burn or discoloured scales," he said.
On Saturday, Mr Watharow captured a boa constrictor after receiving a call from the RSPCA.
"A 75-year-old lady tripped over it," he said.
Mr Watharow caught the snake at a Forest Hill address after the two-metre, red-tailed boa, native to Central and South America, slithered on to a family's front fence.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment had issued licences to 17 private exotic reptile collectors in Victoria. All licences expire when reptiles died and no new ones would be issued, department spokesman Ron Waters said.
The boa was not owned under licence and had probably been imported or bred illegally, which could lead to 10 years' imprisonment or a $110,000 fine.

DAILY TELEGRAPH (Australia) 06 April 05 Police arrest python
(AAP) Police in Melbourne have apprehended their most slippery customer yet, taking into custody a 2m python.
St Kilda Sergeant Peter Easton said the snake was found in public gardens in St Kilda near Luna Park by a group of men who picked it up and flagged down a police car.
Inside the car was Sergeant Rod Stormonth, of nearby Caufield Police Station, who said the incident was the strangest thing he had encountered in 15 years of policing.
Not game to take the snake from around the neck of one of the men, he called a snake handler.
"I wasn't keen on putting him in the back of the police car," he said.
But when the expert was delayed, Sgt Stormonth said he "assisted" in getting the snake into a sealed box on the back seat of the car.
He then drove it to his colleagues at St Kilda.
The snake was still there this morning as police tried to find its owner.
"It's obviously a pet because it was used to being handled by humans," Sgt Stormonth said.
Sgt Stormonth said he had seen some strange things in St Kilda but the snake topped the list.
However, Sgt Easton said he was accustomed to these sorts of arrests.
Asked how handling the snake compared to general policing duties, Sgt Easton said it was "not much different".
"He was keen to wrap himself around us and make our life a misery, he spoke with a forked tongue and he was a very slippery customer," Sgt Easton said.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1274&storyid=2922959
It's hiss and slither as city snakes go AWOL