A TERRIFIED mother of two spent a sleepless night in her Exeter home — after finding a large snake in her washing machine.

Wendy Foley made desperate calls to the police and RSPCA— but was told she would have to wait before someone could come and take it away.

Mrs Foley, 51, who lives at Farm Hill, Exwick, with her sons Tom, 18, and Ed, 21, discovered the snake curled up on her wet washing inside the machine. She thinks it probably crawled in when the door was open and survived a wash.

She said: "The washing had been through a full cycle and was ended, so I was going to take it out and put more washing in.

"I opened the glass door at the front and I saw something. I took it to be part of a pair of jeans and then I wondered if it was a toy snake that children use.

"But then it poked its tongue out at me. It was horrible and quite big. It was just sitting there on the washing. I don't know if it had been through the complete cycle or not. I screamed and screamed — I was terrified."

Mrs Foley, who suffers from arthritis and uses crutches after recent knee surgery, managed to use one of her crutches to force the machine door shut.

"I ran out of the house and there was a man across the road. I told him what had happened and he came in to see. He then went back home and looked it up on his computer and said it was a boa constrictor.

"I called the police but as soon as I said what had happened, they hung up, they thought it was a hoax. I called back and begged them to listen, that it wasn't a hoax, and they said they would get the RSPCA round.

"I called the RSPCA and they said they would send someone but it wouldn't be until the next day. The boys and I waited outside the house for a while because we were so scared. Then they went to bed and I just sat on my bed all night absolutely petrified.

"I kept thinking that it would get out and also that there could be more than one in the house.

"I hate snakes. They scare me and I have absolutely no idea where this one came from."

A spokesman for Devon & Cornwall Police said it has logged the call and referred the matter to the RSPCA. Exeter RSPCA spokeswoman Jo Barr said it had now taken the snake away. It was believed to have been a corn snake.

She said it would not have been possible to respond any sooner: "We were called very early, six minutes past midnight, and the snake had been there for some time.

"The caller said the snake was in good health, not injured and was confined so it was not sick or in danger and an officer was sent out first thing in the morning.

"We do have officers working around the clock but their priority has to be animals which are badly injured or in need of urgent rescue or veterinary treatment."

Cherry Keehner, who works at Heavitree's Tiny Boa reptile shop, said: "Corn snakes are not poisonous although they can give you a nip if they are scared. They can grow up to a metre-and-a-half (5ft) in length."