An East Lothian man made an alarming discovery in his local Lidl recently, when he lifted up a melon only to find a scorpion hidden underneath.
The scorpion was hiding out in a branch of Lidl in Musselburgh, East Lothian - a part of the world known for its relative lack of venomous tropical wildlife - when Adrian Nowak discovered it.
He took a picture of the creature and posted it to a local Facebook group, saying: "So today I went to Lidl to get some essentials and I thought about getting a melon, and this is what I found under one of the melons I picked up."
The post has had nearly 100 comments so far, with some horrified shoppers vowing never to touch a melon again, and others finding it quite funny.
One joker said: "It does say quite clearly 'Handle with care'.
Another added: "I bet you social distanced yourself from that as quickly as possible."
One ex-Navy veteran shared a similar story, saying: "When was in Royal Navy we got our stores in foreign ports. Chef checked the bananas before they went in chilly room, us two stokers were also there to ensure fridges don’t keep tripping.
"Chef opens box and there was a spider the size of a hand on top. The unit was alive but because of being in cool temperatures it lay still. Well, three guys trying to get up a vertical ladder wasn’t easy."
In an interesting twist to the tale, someone asked Mr Nowak if he ended up buying the melon. He replied: "I did!"
Mr Nowak told Edinburgh Live: "When I saw it I just thought to myself 'Santa Maria! WTF is that?' I didn't tell any staff initially as I couldn't find anyone on the shop floor."
A Lidl spokesperson said:
"At Lidl, we pride ourselves on having thorough procedures in place to ensure that our fresh fruit and vegetables are of the highest possible quality for our customers.
"We are, therefore, disappointed that these expected high standards have not been met on this occasion and would like to sincerely apologise to the customer.
"Whilst the matter was reported in store at the time and dealt with immediately, we can confirm that it has also been escalated to our Quality Assurance team to investigate further with the supplier. "
