An Australian snake catcher rounded up a red-bellied black snake found hiding in deck chairs at a home in Glass House Mountains, Queensland, on February 7, video shows.

Stuart McKenzie, owner of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, was called to the scene after receiving an “urgent call” by a resident who found the venemous snake near her back door.

In the video, McKenzie noted that the snake was “a bit defensive” as he attempted to grab it from a stack of folding deck chairs. The creature zipped behind a bike, but McKenzie was ultimately able to grab the snake, bag it up, and place it back in the bush.

“I am so glad I was being careful while moving the chairs, as the healthy, highly venomous snake was up inside them,” he wrote in his Facebook caption. Credit: Stuart McKenzie via Storyful

Video transcript

- We've just come off the Bruce highway. A call has come in, pretty urgent one, nice, big, healthy red belly right at the back door. So we're trying to do a U-turn now so I can head South towards Glass House Mountains. It's one of our returning customers. We caught a big red belly there a couple of years ago. She's got another one. Hopefully she can keep an eye on it, we can get it back in the bush.

- Last time I saw him, he was under the green chairs just around the side there. But I've been sitting here the whole time and I haven't seen it come out. I'm not 100% sure whether there is a gap behind that cage and he could get behind there.

- He's not there now.

- I pushed, we pushed it back as far as we could.

- Pretty little birds, eh?

- Yeah.

- What is that?

- Finches.

- It's definitely a red belly.

- Is he big?

- No, no, I haven't seen him yet. Oh my goodness. Oh, he's up in the chair, wow. That and he's decent sized, too.

- Yes, that's the reason I went for help.

- Hello, look at that. Wow.

- Oh my God.

- Wow.

- That is crazy.

- That is crazy.

- Welcome to Glass House.

[LAUGHS]

- Yeah, I came back from [INAUDIBLE].

- Yeah.

- He would just across the veranda and he would see it. And then suddenly--

- It's crazy, like--

- The cat saw him.

- --how they can climb and how they can squeeze in into some random areas.

- It's part of [INAUDIBLE].

- Hey, buddy. You're all right. Oh, oh, missed him.

- You're all right. Now he's trying to--

- Yeah, I missed his, go other way. You're all right. He's a bit defensive now. Hey, you're all right. You're all right, buddy. What a beautiful snake. He's very healthy. All right, can you let me pick up my bag? Hey, OK, here you go. [LAUGHS] Yeah, good. Here we go. Didn't go to plan but we got there in the end.

How's that for a sneaky hiding spot? That's why I've always got to be careful as a snake catcher when we put our hands into places that we don't know where the snake is. He's going to come out flying here, bush. Just that and crawls off, yeah. Beautiful, beautiful.