Giant python reunited with owner after months roaming Austin

Snow, a 16-foot python, was stolen from a tote bag after someone broke into her owner's car

A 16-foot (4.8-meter) python has been reunited with its owner after months wandering a Texas neighbourhood and spooking residents.

Earlier this week, Austin Animal Center said it got a call about a "giant python" after residents captured the creature and kept it in their garage.

That snake turned out to be Snow, an albino reticulated python who went missing this summer.

The rescue was "one of our best stories yet", the shelter said.

An officer with the Austin Animal Center went to examine the snake, which had been more easily captured due to being lethargic from the recent cold temperatures in the state.

He learned that people in the neighbourhood had been spotting the python in the area since July, the rescue centre wrote in a Facebook post.

Residents sometimes exaggerate the size of snakes they have spotted, but Snow turned out to be giant, Austin Animal Center said

The shelter put the snake in temporary overnight housing and asked the Austin Zoo if they could eventually house the creature.

But then, in a twist of events, several shelter employees remembered they had seen a lost-and-found page for a large albino snake several months earlier, according to the Austin Animal Center, which says it is the largest no-kill animal shelter in the US.

A former staff member with a "mind like a steel trap" was able to find a post from Snow's owner about the missing python on Nextdoor, an application where residents can communicate with their neighbours, the shelter said.

The owner said he was visiting Austin from the city of Dallas 180 miles (289 km) away.

He left Snow in a bag in his car, but the vehicle was broken into and the tote bag was taken.

"Oh to see the look on the thief's face when they opened it up," Austin Animal Center said.

Snow's owner drove to Austin the next day to be reunited with his scaly friend, who he calls "a big gentle giant".

The story had a "very happy ending", the Austin Animal Center said on Facebook. "Snow has been reunited with her owner and Coronado Hills no longer has to be on the lookout for a giant python!"