Aldi's Stowaway Newt Story Has Reached An Adorable Conclusion
On August 14, the Caterer-Stentiford family reached for the celery they had purchased from Aldi five days earlier. Suddenly, a newt plopped upon the table.
Their reaction was a mixture of excitement and worry. They worried, understandably, for both the animal and themselves, as they had eaten some celery earlier that week. "It had been stuck in our fridge for six days, and in the shop before that, and had been transported from the farm," Phillip Caterer-Stentiford explained to Metro. "That's a long time to be refrigerated."
However, the newt, which they named Nigella, was fine. So, the family decided to give Nigella a temporary home in a tank with the celery while they look for a home in the wild for the small creature.
"Whilst extremely rare, this can occasionally occur with products that are grown in natural conditions," a spokesperson for Aldi informed Metro. They went further, offering a refund for the relatively cheap bag of produce.
How "extremely rare" is such an event?
The story itself is quite sweet. However, it is mostly sweet due to the fact that the animal was a newt and Aldi's assurance that this was a rare occurrence. But finding unexpected visitors on one's produce isn't always so benign.
In April, The Guardian reported on the shock an Australian family experienced when they bought a bag of lettuce from Aldi only to find a poisonous snake within its leaves. This was after they carried the bag throughout the store because they lacked the change for a cart, put their groceries in the car, and brought the lettuce home. Fortunately, no one was hurt and a snake handler came to help release the reptile back into the wild. In fact, a note of sweetness does emerge with the family's explanation that they moved the snake (and its leafy home) to a Tupperware and cracked the lid open because they "were worried about it running out of air."
That's not all: in 2016, Mashable shared a story of a man who found spiders baked inside cookies he bought at Aldi. Again, no one was hurt, but both of these stories lack the cuteness of a newt.
As the Aldi spokesperson said in the Metro story, these incidents are anomalies that will occur due to the high amount of products the store handles. Still, it's best you look over what you're about to eat and wash any produce very, very thoroughly.