A couple found a highly venomous live snake inside a bag of supermarket lettuce – but still used the salad to make a sandwich.
Alexander White, 44, from Sydney, Australia, bought a twin-pack of baby cos lettuce while shopping in his local Aldi store with partner Amelie Neate, 35, on Monday.
While unpacking his shopping on the kitchen table, Alexander noticed what he thought was a large worm moving around inside the bag.
“The creature then stuck its long tongue out and I realised it was a small snake,” he explained.
“I then freaked out and called my partner to come and have a look – she of course didn’t believe me when I called out ‘snake in the lettuce’.”
The pair realised the bag was open, with Alexander having carried it around the shop in his arms.
“Luckily my children were not home at the time as I may have asked them to unpack the shopping and I would hate to think what may have happened,” said the dad.
The snake and lettuce were moved into a large Tupperware container and wildlife rescue organisation Wires were informed.
Going by Alexander’s descriptions he was told it was likely a baby Eastern brown – a highly venomous snake.
But on sending over photos, they determined it was actually a pale headed snake, another venomous species.
“He described it as being medically significant, meaning that if it were to bite someone they would need to get to hospital very quickly,” Alexander said.
Due to the dangerous variety of snake, the call handler organised for a snake catcher volunteer to quickly come and pick up the snake around 10.30pm the same evening.
Before it was taken away, Amelie, originally from Austria, took a video of the snake to send to family members, as well as holding a video call with their children who are away for school holidays.
He wrote: “The package does not mention baby snakes, just baby cos lettuce. So I think it might be an issue with the product.
“I’m too nervous to make a salad now, which we were planning to have for dinner.”
A spokesperson for Aldi said: “We’ve worked with the customer and the team at WIRES to identify the snake’s natural habitat, which is certainly not an ALDI store.
“We thank WIRES for their support on this. We are working closely with our produce supplier to investigate how this incident could have possibly occurred.”
With the supermarket’s help, Wires traced the origin of the lettuce back to Toowoomba, and are attempting to organise transport home for the snake.
After the handler took the snake away, Alexander ate the lettuce for lunch.
“I washed it thoroughly,” he told the Guardian.
“There were a couple of things that I had determined to be snake poo but I washed that off and had a salad wrap today.
“People always say ‘wash your lettuce’ and I think I’ve been guilty in the past of not washing my vegetables, but I think the lesson from this is to always wash your lettuce.”
According to the Australian Museum, pale-headed snakes are a “shy but nervous species, easily agitated if cornered”.
There have been no recorded fatalities, but the museum states “an envenomation can produce some unpleasant symptoms, including severe headache, blurred vision, localised pain, and abnormal bleeding”.