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Gecko Found In Punnet Of Raspberries In Sainsbury's

Gecko Found In Punnet Of Raspberries In Sainsbury's

It was taken by the RSPCA

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

Ever been trying to go through the self-service at the supermarket, only for the 'unexpected item in the bagging area' message to repeat over and over again? It's unbelievably annoying and also usually untrue. Everything that is in there is generally meant to be in there.

But this time, the till wasn't just being a nuisance - because there really was an unexpected item. One woman in Basildon, Essex, was shocked when she brought a punnet of raspberries, only to find there was a lizard chilling in there.

The animal, a gecko in fact, was somehow still alive, and was sat in the fruit picked up by the customer at Sainsbury's.

The packet was passed over to a shop worker, who was also baffled as to how the dark scaled gecko had made its way into the store.

Laura Johnson, who was a customer at Sainsbury's at the time, said she saw a fellow shopper pick up the punnet: "Another customer bought them over to the self service till and the employee didn't know what to do or didn't want to touch it."

SWNS

Laura said: "I was approached by a fellow customer who had picked them up and she was worried about it being disposed of. I passed it onto a supervisor and left it with him.

"I can only hope he or she wasn't hurt."

It's unclear how the creature had got to Essex, but Sainsbury's says it has processes in place to 'prevent these sorts of scaly surprises'.

A spokesperson for the company continued: "We're investigating with our supplier.

"We're grateful to the customer and colleagues at our East Mayne store, who arranged for the gecko to be collected by the RSPCA."

Geckos are found in every continent across the globe but prefer warm, tropical climates. Small geckos are usually non-venomous and not harmful to humans.

Medium to large geckos can bite if distressed; however, their bite is gentle and will not pierce skin.

According to the supermarket's website, Sainsbury's often sources its raspberries from Spain, so it looks like this little amigo may have been accidentally packaged up in the country, before being brought to the UK to be sold with the fruit.

Hopefully it's being looked after wherever it has been taken.

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

Topics: uk news, Weird