Hilarious shock for three-year-old Leeds girl who "screamed" her way round Asda due to unknown scratching before hamster found in coat lining

Adam Walton's three-year-old daughter Connie-Mae started crying while the two were in the car on the way to Asda when she told her dad that something was tickling and scratching her back.

Adam pulled over and took Connie-Mae out of her car seat before taking her coat off to find nothing on her back.

He put his daughter's coat back on before heading into the Middleton supermarket but it wasn't long before Connie-Mae was "screaming" in the shop insisting that something was scratching her.

Connie-Mae's mum, Sarah Walton, said: "Adam said that she kept saying she thought there was a snake.

"The people working in Asda kept stopping them both to check everything was okay.

"Adam took her coat off again and checked her back to find nothing.

"He shook the coat and tapped it but couldn't find anything and had no idea why Connie-Mae was screaming.

"I checked her coat when they got home and there was absolutely nothing there but I was so puzzled for the rest of the evening about what had happened because I just couldn't understand what she was screaming at."

It wasn't until Sarah and Adam's eldest daughter Eva went downstairs to the toilet during the night that they realised what had happened.

The LS11 mum added: "Eva went to the toilet at 2am and was scared because she could hear scratching and the arm of Connie-Mae's coat was moving.

"She carefully poked the coat with a sweeping brush to find our Hamster woody who had crept out of the coat's arm.

"Eva came and woke us but I was half asleep and I couldn't understand what she was saying.

"When I realised what had happened I burst out laughing and when we told Connie-Mae in the morning she thought it was absolutely hilarious."

Neither Connie-Mae and Woody the hamster were harmed during the ordeal and they are both perfectly safe.

Sarah said: "Although Connie-Mae found it so funny, after wearing the coat to her child minder's to show all of her friends what had happened, she has said she will never wear the coat again and wants it in the bin.

"Woody must have been hiding right inside the coat because it's got really thick padding.

"It really has given us all so much laughter when we needed it the most."

Sarah shared her story initially just with friends on her Facebook page but then in light of the recent third national lockdown announcement, she decided to post the story on a public Leeds Facebook group to relieve all the "doom and gloom".

Her post has received over 3,000 likes and has had hundreds of shares and comments.

Sarah added: "I never expected the story to be so popular but the girls have loved the attention and I'm glad I could offer some light relief."