Slippery customer: Hong Kong police find teen’s missing pet snake in Sha Tin cinema
- Boy, 16, makes police report on missing python and later retrieves it from Movie Town in New Town Plaza shopping centre
Hong Kong police have found a 30cm python inside a Sha Tin cinema and discovered the reptile to be the missing pet of a 16-year-old boy.
The force said staff of the cinema in New Town Plaza shopping centre found the snake in a screening hall on Thursday and called police at 11.39am.
Police have yet to learn how the animal found its way into the cinema.
A spokesman for the force said the snake had been reported missing by a 16-year-old boy on Wednesday evening at Tin Sum Police Station.
The boy and his mother have since retrieved the pet snake after it was discovered at the cinema.
The force said that the snake was a Leiopython, which is a genus of snake in the family Pythonidae.
According to the website of New Town Plaza, the only cinema inside the mall is Movie Town, which describes itself as the largest in the New Territories and has more than 1,700 seats in seven houses.
Movie Town is operated by MCL Cinemas, which posted a Facebook notice on Thursday announcing that its MX4D theatre would be “closed until further notice” due to a “special incident”.
MCL Cinemas issued an update at 12.57pm, saying operations had “returned to normal”, adding that affected customers could request a refund or a different screening time if they provided a ticket stub or booking number within 14 days.
It also said that, according to guidelines, customers were “strictly prohibited” from bringing pets into its MX4D Movie Theatre, to avoid the animals getting lost and affecting operations.
