text: Reptile: The 6ft-long albino northern pine snake was found curled up on top of a bath mat on a radiator . A teenage girl was shocked to discover a huge albino snake curled up on top of the radiator in her bathroom. Hannah Brierley, 16, thought her mother was playing a prank when she spotted the six foot-long northern pine snake on a bath mat which was hung up to dry at her home in Rochdale, Manchester. She stared at the reptile for a few minutes until it moved and quickly called for her 40-year-old mother, Karen Marriott, to come upstairs. Mrs Marriott attempted to call the RSCPA at 7am yesterday morning but after she was unable to get through she panicked and dialled 999. She said: 'Hannah was calm at first. She can't even deal with spiders, but I don't think she thought it was real. 'She'd been looking at it for a few minutes until it moved. She thought I was having a joke. 'I felt like a wally dialling 999 but I didn't know what to do. I'm frightened because I don't know how it got in. 'It was like something out of a film. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Everybody needed a wee, but we couldn't go.' Craig Wallace, a detective based at Rochdale police station, overheard the control room call and although it's not a police matter, he offered to help as he has experience with keeping snakes. Det Con Wallace used a pillowcase to capture the white snake and took it back to the station, before being transferred into the care of the RSPCA. The officer added: 'I keep snakes so I know a lot about them. It was a northern pine snake. They can give a nasty bite, but they're not venomous. 'If it did bite you, you would struggle to get it off. I put my hand through a pillow slip then got the back of it's head and wrapped it up.' He believes the reptile may be a family pet which has either escaped or been set free and slithered into the house on during the recent warm weather. Scroll down for video . Shocked: It was found by 16-year-old Hannah Brierley who thought at first it might be a prank by her mother . Terrifying: Her mother Karen Marriott couldn't get hold of the RSPCA so called the police to help them . Rescue: Det Con Craig Wallace, who keeps snakes, overheard the call and although it wasn't a police matter, he wanted to help the terrified family and used a pillowcase to capture it . DC Wallace added: 'It's been a nice few days with people leaving doors and windows open. It isn't uncommon for them to go through the loft space or floorboards. He added: 'I wanted to keep it as a station pet, but no-one would sit near me.' The RSPCA later attended Rochdale police station and the snake is now being cared for by the animal charity. Escape: The officer believes the snake may be a family pet that has escaped or been discarded and could have got into the house through an open door or window in the recent warm weather . A regular pine snake, of which the northern pine is a subspecies, in the wild. They vary in colouring . The northern pine snake, or pituophis melanoleucus - a subspecies of the common pine snake - are endemic to south eastern states in the United States, including Alabama and Kentucky. In the wild, colours can vary from to deep-brick to a wine red. Captive varieties tend to be amelanistic or 'albino', which are descendants of a specimen hatched from a wild-collected clutch of eggs. The find occurred near the eastern edge of the Pine Barrens in Ocean County, New Jersey, in the early to mid-1980s. They generally prefer to live in areas with pine flatwoods, sandy pine-oak woodlands or cultivated fields. Pine snakes are carnivorous animals and mainly feed on mice, rats, moles and other small animals. Captive-bred specimens docile behaviour makes them perfect pets and their voracious appetite and rapid growth are some of the reasons for their popularity. Most hatchlings, which are around 12 to 16 inches, will feed immediately and though they may strike and hiss at first, with frequent handling they usually calm down. Adults, which grow between 4ft and 6ft, can be more difficult to calm down if the animal was not handled frequently as a hatchling or juvenile.
target: Hannah Brierley, 16, initially thought 6ft-long snake was a prank by mother .
  But when it suddenly moved she realised the northern pine snake was real .
  She shouted mother Karen Marriott who panicked and called police for help .
  Det Con Craig Wallace used a pillowcase to capture it and taken to RSPCA .
  Believed to have got in through window or door in the recent warm weather .