Thames Water finds flushed corn snake and a Teletubby clogging sewers
Thames Water's inspection cameras found a corn snake – a US native suspected of being an abandoned pet flushed into the network – plus live crabs, fridges, TVs and a giant inflatable Teletubby among this year's strangest sewer finds.
Forget fatbergs. Thames Water has published its annual tour of the unflushable – and this year’s star turn is a corn snake, a US native more usually found in pet shops than pipework. An inspection camera in the Thames Valley filmed the serpent wriggling through the sewers. Crews believe it was an abandoned pet flushed down the loo.
That was only the warm-up. Across the firm’s 100,000 km network, cameras and clearance teams also found live crabs, rats, fridges, televisions, mobiles, number plates – and a giant inflatable Teletubby jammed where no children’s character belongs.
Real photo: Thames Water manhole, Finchley Road, London (2011) – not from the sewer-cam finds. Photo: Mark Ahsmann / CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons).
Thames Water spends more than £40m a year clearing about 75,000 blockages. One works alone removes around 1,000 tonnes of unflushable material every month. Tim Davies, Head of Waste Operations for North London, reminded customers that only the three Ps – pee, poo and toilet paper – should go down the loo, and that televisions have no business in the drain. Animals recovered are handed to specialist rescue where possible.
AI illustration – imagined Teletubby-style blockage; not the actual inflatable or crew.
AI illustration – imagined punchline. (Spot Gaz, our gorilla, hiding somewhere in this picture.)
A corn snake. A Teletubby. Seventy-five thousand blockages. Please stick to the three Ps.
Reported by Thames Water (30 Oct 2026), Bucks Herald and SWNS.
