Python's meal of radio collar helps cops

PERTH, Australia, June 28 (UPI) -- A thief in Western Australia made the mistake of stealing a python from a research lab that had swallowed a radio-collared marsupial, police said.

The radio-tracking device led investigators to a house in Heathbridge, where police found the python and arrested a 30-year-old man, The West Australian reported.

The snake was discovered in the Narrogin bush by Department of Environmental Conservation researchers tracking a radio-collared woylie, a small endangered marsupial. By the time they found the woylie, it was inside the snake, along with its collar and tracking device.

The 6-foot snake was brought to the Woodvale Research Center to make sure it had not been harmed by its meal. The snake was stolen from the lab last weekend and recovered Thursday, with the radio-tracking device still inside and sending out signals.