While it’s too early to say if the Farringdon Fire Station is plagued by some bizarre animal smuggling operation or haunted by a ghost with an oddly specific herpetological fixation, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is currently going by the assumption that the snakes were just abandoned there for reasons unknown. According to RSPCA’s Heidi Cleaver, the situation was pretty much a horror movie come true for the snakes themselves: “We were in the midst of Storm Dennis at the weekend when these snakes, who need heat and light in order to survive, were left outside in the cold with just a pillowcase to contain them,” she says. “It would have been very stressful for the snakes to be in such close proximity to each other as well.” 

Fortunately, only one of the snakes (a royal python, for those keeping count) perished during the ordeal. The others are now at a special care center, and the RSPCA are trying to find out the people responsible for abandoning the serpents. The story doesn’t say whether the animal rescuers plan to capture the culprits, wait until the next major storm and leave them outside in a giant pillow case, so for now, no one’s stopping you from assuming that they totally are.