‘Never seen anything like this’: Shocked Australian finds VENOMOUS SNAKE in Aldi lettuce

The Aldi supermarket chain is investigating after an Australian woman found a live venomous snake in her lettuce this week.

Sydney woman Lesley Kuhn posted photographs of the young, pale-headed snake in her bag of lettuce on Facebook on Monday, along with the warning, “Check packaged lettuces carefully. Last night my son found a baby pale headed snake in with his baby cos lettuce from Aldi.” 

Kuhn added that her son – who didn't initially realize “how dangerous it was” – contacted the WIRES wildlife rescue organization, which then picked up the snake. A WIRES spokesman said the organization had “never seen anything like this,” and predicted that “because it was a juvenile it was picked with the lettuce and it's survived the whole process.”

In a statement, Aldi said the snake's “natural habitat” was “certainly not an ALDI store,” and claimed to be “working closely” with its produce supplier “to investigate how this incident could have possibly occurred.”

ABC News reported that the snake is being returned to Toowoomba, Queensland, which is where authorities believe the snake was mistakenly picked up by lettuce pickers.

According to the Australian Museum, pale-headed snakes have a “dependency on old trees for food and lodging,” which makes them “vulnerable to poor forestry and farming practices.”

The snakes, which are largely distributed across eastern Australia, eat frogs, geckos, and bats, but can cause a variety of problems in humans if bitten. Though there have been no recorded human deaths related to the snakes, a bite can cause “headache, blurred vision, localized pain, and abnormal bleeding” and those who fall victim are advised to check in to a hospital.

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