POSTAL workers in Malaga got a fright when they checked a partly opened parcel, to discover that it contained a live snake.
The albino python, contained in a lunchbox, had been sent via ordinary post.
A wet sponge that was there to keep the snake moist had disintegrated the packaging leading to the discovery.
Police traced the package to a 28-year-old man who insisted he had bought the snake over the internet from Zaragoza as a present for his girlfriend.