After a routine grocery trip, Neville Linton, 63, brought home a bag of broccoli from an Aldi store in Stourbridge, England. Little did he know, he had also brought home an uninvited guest—a snake that had hitched a ride in his veggies!
Neville, an industrial cleaner, had stored the broccoli in his fridge and used it three days later for a meal. When he opened the bag, he was shocked to find a snake slithering among the greens.
“It was quite awful. I’m not good with snakes,” Neville exclaimed. “If I had just left the broccoli out in the kitchen, it could have been loose in the house. With two vulnerable people living here, that would have been a huge risk for us.”
Realizing the creature was too big to be a caterpillar, Neville called his sister, Ann-Marie Tenkanemin, for help. She quickly identified it as a snake. The two placed the snake in a tub and returned it to the Aldi store where Neville had purchased the broccoli.
“At first, I thought she was joking, but when I saw it move, I knew she wasn’t,” Neville said. “The guy in the shop was fairly scared too.”
The snake was taken to the local zoo, where experts identified it as a juvenile ladder snake. However, Dr. Steven J. R. Allain, a herpetologist known as The Pop-Punk Herpetologist, believes it might actually be a viperine water snake.
“After looking at the picture of the snake in the broccoli, I’m not sure the zoo identified the species correctly,” Allain told us. “The snake appears to be a harmless, fish-eating viperine water snake (Natrix maura), found throughout southwestern Europe and northern Africa.”
Allain, a zoology graduate from Anglia Ruskin University with a master’s from Imperial College London, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kent. His expertise includes amphibian illness and population ecology, with a focus on barred grass snakes and the effects of ophidiomycosis.
He explained that it’s not uncommon for a snake from this region to end up in vegetables imported into the UK. “The snake was probably crossing the field and got caught up by farm machinery before hiding in the broccoli,” Allain speculated.
The journey to the UK and Neville’s house took some time, but Allain noted that these snakes can survive for several months without food. The refrigerator’s cooling effect helped the snake maintain a low metabolism, lowering its energy requirements.
“It couldn’t have been comfortable, though,” Allain added. “Especially the quick change from the warm Mediterranean climate to a chillier environment.”
While viperine water snakes pose a threat to fish or frogs, they are non-venomous to humans. “They would much rather play dead than bite people as a form of defense,” Allain said.
Allain also emphasized the need for public education about snakes. “Neville’s response could have been more positive if there had been more public education about snakes and how to handle situations like these,” he remarked. “Maybe its new home at Dudley Zoo will help allay people’s fears of snakes.”
Neville is seeking compensation for his ordeal. Although he has received some, he feels it’s not enough given the risk to his vulnerable mother-in-law and disabled son, who live with him.
“It’s simply not good enough,” he said. “Had it gotten out in the house, it would have had serious consequences for us. There’s also the emotional impact of my snake phobia.”
An Aldi representative responded, “Our supplier has never had a complaint of this nature and has robust processes in place to prevent such issues from occurring. We have apologized to Mr. Linton for not upholding our customary high standards as we look into this isolated incident.”
The story drew varied reactions once it appeared in the local news. Some people were shocked and sympathetic, while others found the situation bizarre and unsettling.
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