| 1 | Sydney lettuce lurker |
Some Australians view cities as a sanctuary against the slithering danger of the surrounding countryside. Rest assured though, that snakes will find a way in if they want to. Alex White discovered this went he bought two heads of cos lettuce from a Sydney Aldi store in 2021. He cycled home, lettuce in his backpack. He greeted his partner Amelia Neate, unpacked the lettuce onto the kitchen table, and then noticed a huge worm inside. Except it wasn’t a worm, he realised, as the snake started flecking it tongue.
It was a pale-headed snake measuring 20cm, a small species which still has a venomous bite capable of inducing blurred vision, nausea and drowsiness. The snake had travelled 540 miles from the lettuce packing plant in Toowoomba. To his peril, White noticed that the lettuce’s plastic packaging was torn, so he grabbed both snake and lettuce and shoved them into a secure plastic food container.
Reptile coordinator Gary Pattinson turned up to remove the snake. “It’s the first snake I’ve ever had in sealed, packed produce,” he said “We get frogs in them all the time.” Aldi said they were investigating, and insisted that their stores weren’t natural snake habitat.
| 2 | German broccoli viper |
To small critters in fields, a bunch of broccoli is probably their equivalent of a tree. It’s a perfect overhanging plant to hide under when predatory birds are looming overhead. That’s likely that happened in a story from 2021, when a Berlin woman entered an Edeka grocery store and headed to the vegetable aisle. She grabbed some prepacked broccoli, but got the shock of her life when she found a baby viper curled around it, inside the packaging.
The viper had been sealed in plastic, and transported all the way by road from Spain’s crop fields to Germany. It had only survived with enough oxygen thanks to its tiny, 12cm size. The woman escaped being bitten, and the store’s managers called the fire brigade, who in turn called the police.
The next shock came for the owner of Berlin’s animal shelter, who saw a policeman marching over with a stalk of broccoli in his hand for some reason.
| 3 | South Africa dairy python |
This tale started with a scream of “SNAKE” from the dairy aisle. It happened in a Spar shop in Cape Town, South Africa, and manageress Martie Esnouf dashed over, heeding the call. Amidst stacks of yoghurt and cartons of milk, she saw a 3 meter African rock python curled up, resting. The rock python is Africa’s longest snake species, sometimes attacking children.
A snake catcher was called, who seized the python with his bare hands and dragged it out into the aisle, revealing its massive length as terrified shoppers watched on. ”I don’t know it got in there but it could have come in through the roof or the drains and it ended up in the shop fridge” said Esnout.
There was no worry though – because the python had slept in the fridge for an estimated 48 hours, it had entered hibernation mode and its organs had started to shut down. There was no chance of it suddenly activating and coiling around a shopper’s neck. The python was bundled into a sack and shipped off for 48 hours of medical examination, later to be released in a National Park.
| 4 | Sydney spice aisle snake |
Woolworth’s is the most powerful supermarket chain in Australia. Its shelves offer everything you need, including meat, fruit, nuts, vegetables – and diamond pythons. One morning in August 2021, 25 year old Helaina Alati dropped in to a Woolworth’s on the outskirts of northwest Sydney to buy some spices. Everything went well, until she turned her head and came face to face with a diamond python only 20cm away. The python was resting on a shelf, not lunging to bite, and protruded and flecked its tongue curiously.
Alati was lucky – she was an experienced snake handler, having participated in 20 rescues. The python proved to be 3 meters long. People had been walking past it all morning, casually grabbing spice jars without looking. Alati believed that it had entered via the roof, which diamond pythons tend to be attracted to. “It was chill, and not aggressive at all,” Alati said. It wasn’t that surprising, as the Woolworths was directly next to rugged Australian bushland.
Alati rushed home and grabbed her personal snake removal equipment, and the calm and friendly diamond python was soon dropped in the wild. Alati simply tapped the snake on the tail, and it slithered right into the bag, as though it had decided to cooperate.
| 5 | Thailand tales |
Thailand is basically a science project in staying alive in a country owned and operated by snakes. The supermarkets are no different. The first story might be our list’s longest snake – a reticulated python lurking in a 7-eleven. It had lain relaxing near the fridge for approximately 24 hours, near a fan that pumped out a warm supply of air.
Then it decided to move into the open, and the result was sheer terror. Shopgoers panicked, and not without reason – reticulated pythons are non-venomous but are known to target small children. Snake catchers lured the python into a canvas bag and transported it to the wild, measuring it at 4 meters.
A 2020 tale was even more worrying, featuring the deadly monocled cobra, which kills the highest quantity of Thai people per year. It started when employee Panupong heard hissing coming from the cashier counter cupboard. Curiosity overcame him, and he opened the door to reveal the angry cobra’s face, causing Panupong and everyone in the vicinity to flee. Reptile handlers arrived with equipment, but the cobra was now even angrier, as its tail was caught in a mouse trap. It took 20 minutes to remove the raging cobra safely, before freeing it in the deep woods.
| 6 | Target bean aisle snake |
She wanted a can of beans. Instead, she got a 2 metre black ratsnake. This 2021 story took place in a target in Beaver Creek Commons, North Carolina. Diane Dupre was from upstate New York, and unused to giant snakes appearing from nowhere.
At first, Dupre thought it was a children’s toy and started looking around for a camera filming a practical joke. The snake wasn’t moving and she was sure it was fake. She grabbed her baked beans as planned and started taking a photo, but then the ratsnake flecked its tongue. She and the snake were all alone in the aisle, and Dupre decided to call for help. “I looked up and down the aisle and I was calmly freaking out,” she said.
Fortunately, black ratsnakes are a non-venomous species, killing their prey by constriction instead, but their bites can be painful and infectious, filled with bacteria. The Target crew managed to deal with the ratsnake themselves, dropping it in the wild, before disinfecting the bean shelf where it was relaxing. They theorised that it had infiltrated the store using a shopping cart, and planned to hire a bug squad to sweep the entire store for its mates.
Dupre meanwhile, said that it was exciting and planned to tell the story for years.
| 7 | Tesco tales |
The UK’s largest supermarket chain is Tesco, with Sainsbury’s constantly nipping at its heels. In 2012, a store worker innocently wandered into the toilets in Tesco Salford, only to jump back in shock after finding a two week old corn snake on the floor.
It was resting in a plastic tub left by a customer – whether it was abandoned or forgotten was never proven. Animal loving store worker Glen Hodges volunteered to take it home. The corn snake is native to the USA – it’s the most popular pet snake worldwide, but that also makes it the top escapee worldwide.
In 2012, the Californian kingsnake got its turn, a non-venomous species with black and white scales. The 1 meter snake was spotted by a customer in the crisp aisle of the Knocknagoney Tesco in east Belfast. It wasn’t the latest cute animal mascot for cheese puffs, it was just a snake. The snake had probably escaped from its owner’s cage, and sought the warmth of the huge Tesco store to escape the cool Irish climate. Employees contacted the store’s technical team, although this probably wasn’t a technical issue they were used to.
| 8 | When the bite nightmare turns real |
Sometimes, true horror takes place and the snake lurking in fruit manages to lunge and bite you. Two incidents happened in Germany, one involving a 76 year old woman in 2018. She was doing her weekly grocery shopping in the state of Thuringia, and headed for the fruit aisle. As she picked up an orange, she felt a stinging pain on her stomach.
When she got home, she saw two blackening marks on her belly. Her doctor confirmed the origin: a snake bite. But the species was unknown, as the shopper never saw the snake, and it was never caught. The Thuringia supermarket was closed down, and authorities tried to trace the snake’s origins via the orange dealer. Employees even placed double sided tape on the supermarket floor. The elderly woman recovered well.
A 2009 incident meanwhile, involved a 44 year old British tourist in a discount supermarket. She felt a sharp pain on her toe, then looked down to see a European viper (AKA adder) in the throes of a red mist rage. The snake quickly fled, but while small, the bite was enough to allow venom in. The woman spent a precautionary night in hospital, and the 25cm adder was hunted down and caught.
| 9 | Watch out for bananas |
There are countless horror films in which the protagonist drives his car away, thinking he’s escaped, before seeing the villain rise up for a brief second in his rear view mirror and meeting a grisly demise. In 2015, something similar happened in Krems, Austria when a woman was driving away from the supermarket, having just bought a box of bananas. To her shock, a viper slithered out from the bag behind her. A local snake catcher known as “Mr rattlesnake” or “Snake Pope” was summoned. Both banana and viper were Spanish.
Bananas might be the top fruit for creepy crawlies to lurk in and be transported thousands of miles; spiders, scorpions and lizards are commonplace. New Zealand saw its own incident in 2021 when workers spotted a dead snake in a freshly delivered banana box, intercepting it before customers could have a heart attack.
The snake measured 20.7cm and was imported from Ecuador; it turned out to be a venomous ornate cat-eyed snake. This time, the 7000 mile journey had proved too much.
| 10 | Walmart: snake central USA |
The most likely place to meet a supermarket snake seems to be any Walmart in Texas. The first incident happened in the Walmart parking lot in Savannah when an employee saw a ratsnake coiled around a collection of shopping carts. A police officer heard the scream from far in the distance. Luckily, John Heckaman AKA the Snake Charmer was on hand to grab the snake; he was only bitten once in the process. Heavy rains were blamed, forcing snakes away from their usual habitat.
Just one week later, a serpent in Marshall’s Walmart store decided to block a woman from entering her car. She moved sideways, the snake moved sideways- there was no way to win. It turned out to be another ratsnake, huge yet harmless. The police arrived and scooped it up barehanded.
In August 2020, Odessa got its turn, as a huge brown snake slithered confidently down the aisle, witnessed by employees during a routine check of the store. The species wasn’t identified, but the consensus in facebook comments was a harmless bullsnake.