- On Tuesday evening, Helen Richards used the bathroom at a relative's home in Brisbane, Australia.
- Richards, 59, was bit by a 5-foot carpet python snake hiding in the toilet.
- She didn't notice the snake because the lights were off.
- The snake's venom wasn't poisonous.
- Richards called a snake handler who captured the animal.
- This is very Australia.
It felt like a "sharp tap on my bottom, along with some pain," Helen Richards told 10 News First Queensland of the moment she was unexpectedly bitten by a snake while sitting on the toilet.
On Tuesday, the 59-year-old woman was using the bathroom at a relative's home in Brisbane, Australia, when a 5-foot carpet python hiding in the toilet bit her, according to the outlet. She didn't notice the snake because the lights were off, according to USA Today.
"I jumped up with my pants down and turned around to see what looked like a longneck turtle receding back into the bowl," she told The Courier Mail.
From there, Richards contacted a snake catcher for assistance, and handler Jasmine Zelený arrived on the scene.
"By the time I got there, she had trapped the snake and calmed down,"Zelený told the BBC. "Helen treated the whole situation like a champion."
In a Facebook post, the snake-catcher organization Zelený works for said the reptile was "safely removed and relocated."
According to the organization, this was not the first time their services had been used for a situation like this.
"While we don't catch snakes in toilets every single day, it is quite a regular occurrence," the post said. "However, being bitten on the behind by a Carpet Python in the toilet is certainly not a regular occurrence, and it was the first time we have turned up to an incident of this kind."
As for Richards? Zelený helped to treat her nonvenomous puncture wound with antiseptic, and she is on the mend.
"[Richards] said her toilet habits have forever changed," the post said. "Lights will be on, and she will always give the bowl a quick glance before sitting down."
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