A Venomous Snake Was Found In A Bag of Aldi Lettuce In Australia
What would you do if you brought back more than just lettuce on your recent trip to pick up groceries from Aldi? Though it's common for people to find a small bug in their greens from time to time, a man in Sydney, Australia, returned from his regular trip to the grocery store with a bit more than that.
According The Guardian, Alexander White found a small venomous snake in a bag of produce he had just brought home from the popular grocery chain. The scientifically named Hoplocephalus bitorquatus has a type of venom that the Australian Museum notes has the ability to "produce some unpleasant symptoms, including severe headache, blurred vision, localized pain, and abnormal bleeding." Ouch.
The snake measured almost eight inches in length. It is known to be a "shy but nervous species," but it happened to emerge while White and his partner Amelie Neate were unpacking their groceries.
"It was moving around and flicking its little tongue out,” White told The Guardian: “It was actually its tongue which let me know it wasn’t a giant worm. I would have been more comfortable with a worm, to be honest.”
After taking a few photographs of their unwelcome dinner guest, the couple called their local wildlife rescue organization Wires; they eventually came to collect the snake. With the assistance of Aldi, the customer and organization were able to trace the lettuce (and, therefore, the snake) back to Toowoomba. They have since began the process of transporting the snake back to its city of origin.
And what about that lettuce, you ask? Well, it definitely didn't go to waste because White ate it in a salad wrap the same day. No, really. He did.
"I have eaten the lettuce," he revealed: "I washed it thoroughly."
Aldi told the outlet they're investigating the issue, and that they've "worked with the customer and the team at Wires to identify the snake’s natural habitat, which is certainly not an Aldi store."
You Might Also Like
