A woman in southwest Virginia got the surprise of a lifetime when she discovered a snake inside a bag of popcorn at her local grocery store.
Kimberly Slaughter from Lunenburg County, Virginia, was inside a Shoppers Value store when she saw what she believed to be mouse feces inside of her shopping cart, WTVR reported.
“I was like, I’m not getting that bag,” Slaughter told the news outlet. “So I put it on the bottom shelf because there was already mouse poop covering the bottom shelves.”
Kimberly Slaughter was startled by a snake inside a popcorn bag in a Virginia grocery store (Kimberly Slaughter )
Slaughter said there were sticky rodent traps on the bottom shelf as well. She then went to grab another bag of popcorn, but noticed that bag had a small hole in the top right corner. When Slaughter went to put the bag in her cart to take up to the front because it couldn’t be sold, she discovered a snake inside.
“As soon as I went to put the bag in my basket to take it up front, because you know, they can’t sell it. The thing had popped out, and you know, I was like, oh, well, hi!”
The head of a snake popping out of a bag of popcorn inside a Virginia grocery store. (Kimberly Slaughter )
She explained that when she brought the cart to the front of the store the snake emerged from the bag and slithered around before returning inside the bag.
“It was the full length of the cart,” Slaughter, who says friends told her she encountered a rat snake, said. “It had prime real estate though.”
Slaughter said she immediately pushed her grocery cart with the bag of popcorn and snake still inside to the front of the store to let an employee know about the issue.
“They’re like, this doesn’t ever happen here,” she explained. “But the bottom shelf has no merchandise on it because of the simple fact that mice get on it.”
According to Fox News, the store manager, Brian Stanley, said the store is investigating.
“We have no idea where it came from,” Stanley said. “We are investigating trying to find out where it came from, but we have no other indication that there could be any others.”
According to Slaughter, an employee removed the snake from the store, and she said — based on the photos — friends have told her it was a rat snake. Despite the store saying otherwise, Slaughter said this isn’t the first time she’s learned of an issue at Shoppers Value, and she believes more needs to be done to protect the health and safety of customers.
“They’re just turning like a blind eye,” she said. “They’re not doing anything about it. The health department has been called numerous times. There’s been multiple complaints. You know, I have another friend who has emailed the health department and nothing has come from it.”
CBS 6 reached out to the Virginia Department of Health Piedmont District to ask if there have been complaints about the grocery store. They said grocery stores are under jurisdiction of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS).
We are still waiting for more information about possible reports on the store from VDACS.