Shopper buys bunch of broccoli – then sees something moving close to the stem

Don’t you just hate it when you pick something up at the grocery store only to realize it’s not as fresh as you first thought when you get home.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve purchased a bag of apples only to find that a pair of them are bruised. Or how about when you buy a box of eggs, forget to check them, and later find that is cracked? I’ve even had the rotten luck of picking up a loaf of bread that’s already started to go moldy!

One thing I can safely say I’ve never found in my weekly grocery shop, however, is a snake…

I’m fairly confident not many of our readers will have encountered any slithering reptiles hiding among their fruit and veg either, but one man, from Birmingham, UK, did.

According to reports, Neville Linton was at an Aldi grocery store last year when he bought a bunch of broccoli. When he got home though, he nearly jumped out of his skin after discovering a live snake coiled within his purchase.

The 63-year-old was in the process of preparing a meal when he spotted the non-venomous snake, later identified as a ladder snake, close to the stem of his broccoli.

“It was pretty frightening. I’m not good with snakes,” Neville explained.

“It’s lucky I didn’t just leave the broccoli out in the kitchen, or it would have been loose in the house.

“That would have been a huge risk for us because we have two vulnerable people living here.”

As per Sky News, the ladder snake is native to south west Europe, including countries such as Portugal, Spain, and France. The species is not venomous, though it can deliver a serious bite.

When Neville realized what he’d found was too big to be a caterpillar or some other sort of insect, he placed it in a container and returned it to the store.

“The guy in the shop was pretty frightened too,” he recalled.

Neville was reportedly offered compensation by Aldi, though he was dissatisfied with the figure on the table.

“It’s just not good enough,” he said. “The implications for us if it had got out in the house are huge. Plus, I’m phobic of snakes so there’s the emotional impact of that too.”

Have you ever experienced anything like this? If so let us know in the comments.