A 63-year-old grandfather was left terrified after discovering a live snake hidden inside a head of broccoli he bought from Aldi. Neville Linton, from Stourbridge in the UK, had stored the broccoli in his fridge for three days before unwrapping it on the kitchen counter to prepare a meal. To his horror, nestled among the stems was a small snake — alive and moving.

“I’m not good with snakes,” Neville said. “It was really frightening. If I had left it out in the kitchen, it could’ve gotten loose in the house, and that would have been a massive risk for us, especially with my disabled son and elderly mother-in-law living here.”

Neville quickly called in his sister, Ann-Marie Tenkanemin, 57, who helped carefully remove the snake and identify it as a species not native to the UK. The two returned to the Aldi store where they had bought the broccoli and showed the startled staff what they had found.

At first, the snake was identified by local zoo staff as a ladder snake, which is common in parts of southern Europe. Though not venomous, ladder snakes can be defensive, may bite if provoked, and are known to give off a foul smell as a warning. The snake was later placed in the care of Dudley Zoo, where it remains.

However, herpetologist Dr. Steven J. R. Allain later reviewed images of the snake and came to a different conclusion. According to him, the animal was actually a viperine water snake — a harmless species that lives near water in southwestern Europe and North Africa. These snakes eat fish, frogs, and other small animals, and while they may look intimidating, they are not venomous and rarely bite humans. In fact, they prefer to play dead as a defense.

Dr. Allain theorized that the snake most likely ended up in the broccoli during harvesting somewhere in the Mediterranean, where much of the UK’s produce is grown. It may have been scooped up by farm equipment and later sought shelter inside the broccoli. Due to their ability to slow their metabolism, it’s not unusual for a small snake like this to survive in cold storage — even in a fridge — for several days.

Neville, who described the experience as traumatic, said Aldi offered compensation but that it wasn’t enough. “It’s just not good enough,” he said. “The risk to my family was huge, and I’m phobic of snakes, so this has had a real emotional impact on me.”

An Aldi spokesperson responded, stating, “Our supplier has never had a complaint of this nature and has strict processes in place to prevent such incidents. We’re investigating this isolated case and have apologized to Mr. Linton.”

Although the snake was harmless, the incident was a major shock for Neville and his family. Experts like Dr. Allain hope it also raises awareness — not just about food safety — but about the misunderstood nature of reptiles like the viperine water snake. “They only pose a danger to fish and frogs,” he said. “Not to people.”