'I found a deadly snake in my toddler's underwear drawer'

“At first I thought my nephews were playing a prank on me, but then I saw it move and I thought ‘no, it’s real’.”

A Melbourne mum has recounted the terrifying experience of finding a deadly snake in her toddler’s drawers.

Hayley Ragona found a deadly eastern brown snake in her toddler’s underwear drawer, and said the family still didn’t know how the venomous reptile got inside the house.

7News reports a snake catcher told Hayley the snake had got inside with the washing, but she doubted that was the case.

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“We were away over Christmas, so we don’t know how it got inside,” she said.

“It may have come inside through a gap.

“He (the snake catcher) suspected maybe through the washing, but my toddler’s clothes are quite small. I feel like if I was folding his washing I would feel a five-foot brown snake.”

The snake was found at a home in Diamond Creek, about 23 kilometres northeast of Melbourne’s CBD.

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"I thought my nephews were playing a prank on me!"

Hayley told 7News the snake may have come through an open door, and she was now making sure her kids kept all doors closed when leaving the house.

She said she initially thought the snake was a prank.

“I just opened the top drawer and it was full of the snake,” she said. “At first I thought my nephews were playing a prank on me, but then I saw it move and I thought ‘no, it’s real’.”

She also said she was glad she found the snake before her son, who she described as “inquisitive” with animals.

“I’m thankful it was me who found it first,” she told 7News. “He’s very inquisitive so he would have picked it up.

“Due to the size of it, it would probably be fatal for him.”

Originally published as 'I found a deadly snake in my toddler's underwear drawer'