Lots of people reach into new boxes of cereal to search for a free gift, but not many

of them find a live snake. That’s what happened to five-year-old Jordan Willett when he was hunting in a box of cereal for a toy.

Instead of a plastic toy he pulled out a 60cm-long corn snake, which jumped at him when

he touched it. Luckily for Jordan the snake — which normally feeds on mice and birds — wasn’t poisonous, although it may still have hurt if had bitten him.

A spokesman for Netto, who sold the cereal, said: “This does seem to be a bizarre incident but we are taking it very seriously.