A man driving in south-east Australia was shocked to see an eight-foot red-bellied black snake climb up the outside of his window and start “tapping” to try to enter the car.
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Ted Ogier, who was doing a work delivery near the town of Eden, south of Sydney, said the snake slithered out from his car’s bonnet and wrapped around his driver’s side mirror before making its way to the window.
"It was sort of tapping on the window a couple of times, because it obviously wanted to get in," he told ABC News.
"It had come out from under the engine bay under the bonnet, it was probably a bit warm there."
Mr Ogier called a work colleague, who used a broom to “usher” the snake into nearby bushland.
He said the experience was not as terrifying as being joined in his car by a spider, one of the other common native creatures with a fondness for automobiles.
"Not as frightening as getting a spider on the inside — spiders are one thing I don’t like, but I don’t like snakes either," he said.
Snake season
The incident comes just two weeks after a man in Sydney returned to his car from an evening walk to find a handwritten note from a benevolent stranger who warned that a snake had “slithered up into your front tyre”.
“Please be careful,” the note added.
Michael Garbutt, the car owner, looked inside the bonnet of his car and discovered a red-bellied black snake.
"So I popped the bonnet and there it was coiled up underneath," he told the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader newspaper.
"To say I was shocked is an understatement. On reflection I don’t think I would have put my hand out to pop the bonnet if I had known it was there. My main concern was how do I get rid of it?”
Mr Garbutt called a snake catcher, who tried to lure the snake from the engine with a hook but eventually used his hands.
Red-bellied Black Snakes, one of the most frequently encountered snakes on Australia’s east coast, are venomous but typically only bite if provoked. They are responsible for several bites a year, though deaths are extremely rare.