A 79-year-old man got the shock of his life earlier this week when he lifted the lid of his downstairs toilet and found a snake staring back at him.
David Claridge, a Bracknell resident, spotted something yellow and black poking out of the bowl when he went to use the toilet on Tuesday morning.
A closer look revealed the unwelcome visitor to be a grass snake, measuring approximately three feet (0.9 metres) in length.
The Berkshire pensioner suspects the reptile had slithered up through the drainage system in search of water during the recent spell of hot weather.
Mr Claridge described his astonishment at the discovery: "I thought I must be seeing things," he said.
"But I looked again, and for sure it was there. And then it moved."
Having identified the creature, he quickly determined it posed no danger.
"I thought, well, it's got to be a snake of some kind. What else could it be?" he recalled.
After concluding the grass snake was non-venomous, Mr Claridge said he "felt no fear".
He did, however, opt to reach for a pair of barbecue tongs rather than handle the reptile with his bare hands, before setting about removing it from the property.
Gripping the snake just below its head, Mr Claridge carried it out to his garden - though the creature initially attempted to head straight back towards the house.
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"I gave it a push and a nudge in the right direction and then it found the grass and was gone," he said.
As for how the reptile found its way indoors, the pensioner believes the answer lies in the plumbing.
"I know this toilet and others discharge to a drain, and about a metre and a half away from there is a rainwater drain," he explained.
"I didn't realise the two were connected, and that's the only way I can imagine it must have come in."
The story took an unexpected twist when a nearby resident contacted Mr Claridge, convinced the snake might be his own missing pet.
However, it proved to be a false alarm, as the man's spider python turned up safe and well the following day.
Mr Claridge added: "I guess had it been in there for a long time, the poor thing would have died. I probably gave it a new lease of life," he said.
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