A family got the shock of their lives when they opened their curtains to find a 4ft-long python in their back garden.

Samantha Hill, of High Street, Rainham, said her day took a rather dramatic twist when she looked out of the bedroom window to see the massive reptile laying on the grass.

Samantha, 43, said her first reaction was to keep her discovery hidden from her two young daughters as she knew they would be even more scared than she was, so she discreetly called her husband upstairs for a second opinion.

But when her husband, David, took a look he didn't believe it.

"I knew it would freak my daughters out," she said. "David thought I was going crazy. He was convinced it was just plastic. It didn't look real."

Being the brave man of the house, David, 43, armed himself with a broom and headed out to the garden.

Samantha said: "I wasn't going to go out there! I know snakes hibernate and can slow down almost to the point they look dead. So we weren't sure if it was dead or not at first."

On closer inspection David decided it was real, so the couple set about trying to find its owner.

The sales assistant and her husband have only recently moved to the area but Samantha said she knew a neighbour a few doors down had a snake, so she went to ask him, but it was not his.

Next she tried the RSPCA and a number of vets, but got no answer. "I didn't try the emergency vets as I wasn't sure it really counted as an emergency."

Samantha then put out an appeal on social media and said she was amazed by the number of people in the area who had pet reptiles.

"I couldn't believe how many people owned snakes as pets. I was starting to question where I had moved to!"

When Samantha had no luck locating its owner or any animal experts she started to think she was going to have to take matters into her own hands.

"I would not have felt happy about leaving it outside overnight. I didn't really want a fox to run off with it. Regardless of how I feel about them it is someone's pet.

"We know how much we love our cat. People have the same feelings about their snake.

"I did consider putting it in a bag and leaving it in the garden, but I didn't want to bring the bag in the house just in case it was alive."

Meanwhile, their seven-year-old daughter, Poppy, had found out about the unwelcome intruder and was distraught about him hanging out in her garden.

"I knew he had dogs but I didn't know he had a snake. It appears we're surrounded by them!"

"She was really panicking about there being a snake in the garden," Samantha said. "She kept asking when it was going to go.

"She told us she's not going into the garden ever again!"

When volunteers from Kent Wildlife Rescue arrived later that evening they confirmed he had been dead a while and it looked like part of his body had been eaten by foxes already. They took him to a PDSA vet.

Thanks to the power of social media the snake's owner has also been located. He was Samantha's next door neighbour.

She said: "I knew he had dogs but I didn't know he had a snake. It appears we're surrounded by them!"

Harry, a fireman, confirmed the snake had died a few weeks ago and had been buried in his back garden.

"His name was Monty," he said. "We buried him in a large pot with some flowers.

"A fox tried to get to him a week ago as we found the plants disturbed and soil on the floor. But it seems Saturday night the fox got lucky and took him completely."

Monty was five years old and Harry had owned him since he was a baby.

He said: "They're great pets. They're sociable and not aggressive like people assume."

Once they knew he was someone's pet Samantha said she was able to reassure her daughter that she was safe to go back in the garden.

"We told her it's not something that happens everyday and there aren't just snakes everywhere. It was very unusual."