Python was ‘taking cheeky nap’ in zoo vending machine. Then Steve Irwin’s son appeared
Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Monster and ... snakes?
A huge carpet python was caught “taking a cheeky nap” inside a vending machine at Australia Zoo, according to an Instagram video shared by Robert Irwin, son of famed zookeeper Steve Irwin.
“OK so I just got a call, we’ve actually got a carpet python, a big snake, stuck in a vending machine,” Irwin said in the Aug. 8 video. “This is, uh, this is a first!”
Irwin showed the creature curled up between soda bottles inside the machine. After the machine is unlocked and opened, Irwin got to work, the video shows.
“We don’t want to make him too upset, because we want him to come out nice and smooth,” Irwin told the camera as he wriggled the creature through the front of the machine, avoiding the wiring.
After a few seconds of maneuvering, Irwin pulled the snake from the door with an excited, “There, we got him!”
Irwin noted that the snake appeared to have been caught in a precarious spot before.
“This bloke has obviously got a spirit of getting himself caught in weird situations,” Irwin said while examining the creature. “He’s missing the end of his tail, and that’s an old injury, so that’s a long time ago.”
Irwin said he was relocating the snake.
“Don’t go in any more vending machines,” he warned the reptile.
Instagram users reacted to the rescue video.
“Call him coca coila,” one person commented.
“Imagine putting in 4 dollars and that comes out instead of a coke…,” another person wrote.
“When all you want is a nice cold bottle of Coke but end up getting rescued by Robert Irwin #embarrassment,” another comment said.
Australia Zoo is in eastern Australia, about 45 miles north of Brisbane.
This story was originally published September 11, 2023 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Python was ‘taking cheeky nap’ in zoo vending machine. Then Steve Irwin’s son appeared."
