Relief as pet python finally found after desperate three-week search in popular Aussie suburb

A woman has thanked her local community for coming together to help find her two missing pet pythons after her ex-boyfriend allegedly set the pets free last month in an apparent act of revenge.

The 25-year-old was reunited with Mango on Sunday after a desperate three-week search. Bagel, the other pet snake, was found on October 31.

“She’s in perfect condition, if a little tired,” the woman told Yahoo News Australia. She took the opportunity to thank the community in Coogee, a suburb in Sydney’s east, for coming together to help find the reptiles.

“I definitely couldn’t have done it without the help of the community, the tireless searching, the effort of the local police and WIRES - it was a real genuine show of human empathy and care for others to see how much everyone wanted to help,” she told Yahoo.

“I never expected to feel so supported by such a huge collective during a time as difficult as this.”

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Locals come together to find pets

Social media was set alight on Sunday morning with reports that albino python Mango had been found hiding under a pile of rocks just hundreds of metres away from where it went missing three weeks ago.

A crowd of locals gathered to watch the second of the two missing pythons be captured and placed into a bag where it was taken to a local vet.

Sharing the moment online, many reacted with delight. “Wonderful news,” said one happy resident. “Even better we are not looking over our shoulder for 2 pythons on the streets.”

“So pleased to see it’s still alive and been found,” said another. A third shared that they’ve been looking behind “nooks and crannies” for the snakes for the past three weeks.

Snakes ‘dumped on the street’

The snake owner's calls for help went viral last month when she took to social media to raise the alarm. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia at the time, the woman explained that she and her pets, aged five and six, had been living with her boyfriend on Mount Street before she ended things.

"When I broke up with him on the weekend he threatened to smash the enclosure and dump them," she alleged.

He then took action, reportedly putting all of her items out on the nature strip including the snakes in an open box next to the smashed enclosure. But by the time the woman got there, the snakes were gone.

The 25-year-old ex has since been charged with two counts of destroying or damaging property.

Locals urged to keep an eye out

While both snakes are native to Australia, but not to Sydney, they were hand-reared so were in serious danger outside their enclosure.

"Captive-bred and raised animals do not thrive in the wild," wildlife expert Sam Chatfield told Yahoo. "They don't have the awareness of the dangers the wild presents, from cars to dogs. The likelihood they get killed is extremely high."

The pet owner was relieved to learn that neither of the pythons had a meal while out on the streets.

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