A WOMAN had the fright of her life when her recently-bought hamster disappeared from the back seat of her car on Friday the 13th.

Carla Butterworth. from Burnley, spent nine hours searching for Hamazon the hamster after he gnawed his way through a cardboard carry-box during the car journey home.

The professional dog walker said she took her car to the nearest garage to have the back seats taken out in an attempt to find the roving rodent.

She said: “We were on our way back from Pets at Home in the car and he was on the back seat.

“We were about ten minutes away from home when I realise he wasn’t in the box. I looked round for him but couldn’t see him anywhere so ended up going to the local garage and having them take the back seats out.

“They had no idea what I was talking about, they just knew the back seats had to come out, which took them an hour and a half.

“It was such a shock when he wasn’t there and I started to think he had burrowed right in and was chewing his way through the car’s electrics.”

Ms Butterworth said she spent the rest of the day setting up food traps and regularly checking in case he made an appearance.

She said: “When he still hadn’t come out I started worrying that he had somehow dropped out underneath the car when we were on the motorway.

“I came out every few minutes to check, and at 9.30pm I spotted him chilling on the back seat.

“I tried to grab him but he was too quick so I spent another 20 minutes hunting round for him and eventually found him in the passenger seat foot-well.

“I didn’t want to risk losing him again so I popped a sieve over him and got him that way, he thought the whole thing was hilarious of course. Thankfully he’s absolutely fine after his adventure. and he’s really friendly, It had to happen on Friday the 13th.”