Cleaning staff at a Massachusetts hotel discovered a 5-foot reticulated python abandoned in a drawer inside a room that had recently been vacated.

Rod Dazivasen, general manager of the Central Mass. Aquatics pet store, said animal control officers were called April 5 to the Marriott Residence Inn in Worcester to remove what was initially thought to be a 5-foot-long ball python from a drawer in one of the hotel's rooms.

"He may be two years old but he's not an old snake," Dzivasen told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "Why on earth they had him in a hotel room is beyond me."

Police said they were unable to locate the person who had been staying in the room.

"We tried to find the owner, but he gave the clerk a fake name and just disappeared," animal control officer Patrick Cherry told The Boston Globe.

Richard Wilson, owner of Central Mass. Aquatics, said the snake is now being taken to New England Reptile Distributors in Plaistow, N.H., after experts identified it as a golden child reticulated python, which can grow to up to 18 feet long and are illegal to keep without a permit in Massachusetts.