A RED-BELLIED black snake named 'Michael Jackson' unwittingly became the target of an almost three-week surveillance operation in the front lawn battleground of military consultant James Bonning's house.
The snake became entangled with the Cameron Park resident after it took up residence in his retaining wall.
Three weeks of surveillance, three trap prototypes and a lot of patience later, Mr Bonning was able to bag the uninvited visitor with the help of Hunter Wildlife Rescue reptile rescuer Anil Lakkundi.
"He [Mr Lakkundi] would have been over here seven or eight times attempting to get it, because the snake was living well inside the retaining wall a good three to four feet deep inside it," Mr Bonning said.
So, Mr Bonning, who works as a military consultant, launched an operation to ensnare the snake, tailoring an infrared home security system to observe its movements in and out of the wall.
His first trap was a long PVC tube designed to capture the snake without having to touch it, but 'Michael Jackson' moonwalked right around it.
"Then when I set up this box, I put one of those little Orbi cameras just inside the box so I could see when he was in there, to give me an indication of when he moved inside that space," Mr Bonning said.
The infrared cameras could detect movement and sent a ping to Mr Bonning's phone when the target was inside the box.
"The last one was basically like a plastic storage tub, I flipped that upside down, put some weight on top and then I just put it up like the old Wile E. Coyote sort of catcher trap with the string," he said.
"I'd get a little buzz from the security system and when I'd take a look, quite often he would be just outside of the trap or next to it, but then finally he was inside and we got him.
"It happened to be the one that worked, so that's what got him in the end."
Within 20 minutes Mr Lakkundi was at the scene ready to take the slippery serpent away.
"It was hiding in a hole right in front of the front door," Mr Lakkundi said.
"We tried to get it, but when we did it would go back and hide, finally we managed to get it.
"It was very clever that he [Mr Bonning] could do that."
Mr Lakkundi grabbed the snake while Mr Bonning held the bag that would become 'Michael Jackson's' temporary safe house.
Despite the drawn-out snake surveillance operation, Mr Bonning said he "kind of misses him" now he's gone.
"I've got multiple videos from inside the box, and the red belly is a beautiful specimen, if it was up to me I'd maybe keep him there, but my wife, definitely not," he said.
"We [he and Mr Lakkundi] fell in love with the snake, we'd be sending each other videos of what we were seeing and in one of them the snake slinked backwards.
"Without turning he just slid backwards, completely backwards, back into the hole like a Michael Jackson moonwalk.
"That's why we called him MJ, based on that."
The red-bellied black snake was captured on Sunday morning and taken to Mount Sugarloaf shortly after to be released.
