The man didn’t realize he had brought a snake back with him when he went grocery shopping since the snake had grown used to eating the items he had brought back.
Neville Linton, 63, bought a bag of broccoli at an Aldi supermarket in Stourbridge, England, during the course of the preceding month. After that, he put the broccoli in the fridge and came out of it three days later to make dinner.
But no sooner had the man tried to take the wrapper off the broccoli than he was met with an unexpected guest. Continue scrolling down to learn more about how the event went down, and make sure to listen to our interview with Dr. Steven J. R. Allain, aka The Pop-Punk Herpetologist, about it.
After meandering through a field of broccoli in the southwest of Europe, the snake was packaged and shipped to a grocery store in the United Kingdom.
Neville Linton, sixty-three, picked it up and carried the lizard home with a bag of vegetables without raising any red flags.
Neville, an industrial cleaning technician, could not believe what he was seeing.
It was an extremely scary experience. He said, “I’m not very good around snakes.Should I had just left the broccoli outside in the kitchen, it would have been all over the house. The fact that I refrained from doing so proved to be fortunate.
Something like that would have been a big risk for us because we have two frail people living here.
When he realized the object was too big to be a caterpillar, he called his sister Ann-Marie Tenkanemin for help. She decided that since it was such a big monster, she must have been thinking about a snake.
The two of them put it in a tub and went back to the Aldi on Dudley Road, where Neville had bought it the previous time.
When I first saw it move, I believed she was kidding, but as soon as I saw it move, I left the area. “The individual who was working in the shop was also quite terrified,” he said.
The experts at a local zoo verified that the snake in question was, in fact, a juvenile laddering snake once it was taken there.
Herpetologist Dr. Steven J. R. Allain, however, is highly suspicious that it might be a viperine water snake.
The reptile in question was taken to the Dudley Zoo, where personnel concluded that it was probably a juvenile ladder snake. However, after contacting Dr. Steven J. R. Allain, Bored Panda found that he typically holds the opposing view.
After looking at the picture of the snake with the broccoli, Allain told us he wasn’t sure if the zoo had correctly identified the species. My expert judgment tells me that the snake in question is Natrix maura, commonly known as a viperine water snake. This kind of snake eats fish and is benign. It can be found throughout northern Africa and the southern part of Europe.
Allain has completed his undergraduate studies at Anglia Ruskin University, Imperial College London, and the University of Kent. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Kent. His current work primarily focuses on the effects of ophidiomycosis and the population ecology of barred grass snakes (Natrix helvetica); yet, he is also interested in investigating the connection between amphibian illness and population ecology.
Since the Mediterranean region provides a large amount of the food that is grown and imported into the United Kingdom, it is not surprising to find a species that is native to this region present in some vegetables that are most likely grown there. In my opinion, the snake was probably just meandering across the field till it was finally ensnared by farm equipment, at which point it took refuge in the broccoli.
It took a while to travel to the United Kingdom and then to Neville’s house, but according to Allain, these snakes can go for several months without food, and the refrigerator’s freezing would have helped keep the snake’s metabolism low, reducing the amount of energy it needs to function.
“However, I can’t even begin to fathom how comfortable it could have been,” he said. It is imperative that the broccoli transitions as rapidly as possible from the warm Mediterranean climate to a comparatively cooler one in order to maintain its maximum freshness.
Viperine snakes are water snakes that only infect fish (or frogs) as victims. They do not bite people as a kind of self-defense; in fact, they would much rather appear to be deceased. Moreover, they are not thought to be toxic to people.
“I know that this must have been a distressing time for Neville, especially for someone who has a fear of snakes,” added Allain. “However, his reaction could have been more positive if there had been more widespread education and understanding of snakes, as well as how to deal with situations like this.” “It is not the snake’s fault that it ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the statement reads. However, it is hoped that the snake’s new home at the Dudley Zoo will help people get over their fears of snakes.
Neville has received an offer of compensation, but he is trying to get more.
Because of the risk to his disabled son and his mother-in-law, who share a home, the father of three argued that the amount he had heard did not seem appropriate. He went on to say that the number didn’t seem fitting.
And he went on, “It’s just not good enough.”If it had been found in the house, the consequences would have been catastrophic for us. There is also the emotional fallout from the fact that I am terribly afraid of snakes.
An Aldi spokesperson said, “Our supplier has never had a complaint of this nature and has robust processes in place to prevent such issues from occurring.” Here is an excerpt from that statement.
“We have apologised to Mr. Linton for the fact that our usual high standards were not met, and we are currently conducting an investigation into this isolated incident.”
