Canadian authorities have rescued 40 distressed pythons near a motel in Brantford, a city about 100 km (62 miles) southwest of Toronto.

Neighbors of the motel became suspicious when dozens of snakes slithered up to the nearby Starlight Diner and ordered eggs with a side of mice to go. When the food came, and not being able to pay, they tried to escape with the wriggling sack and were near the motel when police showed up.

“It was an easy capture” said police spokesperson Captain James McGuinn, “If you’ve never seen snakes trying to drag a bag of food down the street, well, it was a sight. When we caught up with them, they were wolfing down the mice one after another right there in the car park.

They couldn’t make it all the way back to their room to eat and couldn’t slither away too quickly, so some of the officers were taking pictures for their Facebook page.”

Questioned by authorities the python couple said “When we only had 15 youngsters, we could travel almost anywhere, but 38 is entirely too much. We don’t blame the police for looking into the chaos.”

“The snakes were not being suitably cared for and were in distress. The parents, hibernating in the room at the time of their children’s departure, didn’t even know where they were. Police found horrible conditions in the motel room, with snakeskin and mouse bones strewn throughout.

The pythons parents, who were emigrating from the Florida Everglades to a new home just South of the tree line when they were arrested by police, had no immediate comment except “Look, we can have dozens more babies at the drop of a hat. This doesn’t faze us. Go ahead, call PETA.”

A manager at the motel said the snakes belonged to a family who had checked into a room for one weekend. He gave a description of a really skinny couple with ill-fitting clothes who couldn’t sign the guest register because they had no hands. “I felt sorry for them, so I signed it myself. They said their name was ‘Johnson’ and said they were on vacation. They tried to pay with a dead squirrel but I had to have a credit card.

I had to sign that for them too.

By the way, if anyone asks we have a ‘No Pets’ policy.”