A man got quite a surprise this week when he went to use the bathroom at a Texas Starbucks and found a snake draped across the toilet seat.
Bruce Ahlswede had just wrapped up a business meeting Tuesday and stopped at a Starbucks in San Antonio to relieve himself.
"I looked down and looked at the toilet and I see this snake laying across the toilet. I said [to a store employee] 'hey, you know you've got a snake in your bathroom' and she's kind of freaking out,"
Ahlswede told CNN affiliate KSAT. "So we went back in and watched it as it slithered back and around and down underneath the rim of the bowl and right inside."
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Ahlswede called his wife Michele into the bathroom also and she was able to snap a quick picture of the snake, which she later posted on Facebook.
"It had to have crawled up the pipes," Michele Ahlswede wrote along with the photo. "I have heard of it happening but have never seen it in person. Its a python guess he like coffee also."
Experts told KSAT that the snake is most likely a type of Texas rat snake, which isn’t poisonous and sometimes finds its way into toilets and other plumbing.
Starbucks released a statement about the incident later Tuesday.
"The safety of our customers is our top priority. We want all of our customers to have an enjoyable experience when they visit our stores, and we were concerned to learn of this incident," the statement read. "Our partners immediately contacted Animal Care Services. Animal Care Services does not respond directly to calls involving snakes. Rather, they refer snake calls to the South Texas Herpetology Association, which is who checked the store. They performed a comprehensive inspection of our store. South Texas Herpetology Association confirmed the store is safe for customers and partners and that there were no further safety concerns."
The inspection team never did find the snake.
As for Bruce Ahlswede, he plans on being very cautious in the bathroom from here on out.
"I'm going to take a closer look and definitely lift the seat and be a little more careful," he said. "Because you never know."
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