An Aldi Customer Basically Found A Nightmare In A Can Of Beans

A warning in advance: If you're about to tuck into a hearty, bean-filled breakfast, now is the time to put down the fork — or at least check that there's nothing slithering among your bacon and eggs first. An Aldi shopper in Wales shared her story of the moment she opened a can of baked beans from the chain and found what she believed to be a dead snake floating inside, an incident that puts an entirely more reptilian spin on the saying, "to open up a can of worms."

Speaking to Wales Online, the Porth-based customer described the serpentine surprise as "something grey and black with distinctive markings." After the beans "moved" when she prodded them with a fork, she tweeted a photo of her disturbing discovery. It subsequently went viral, prompting a flurry of responses ranging from horror to hilarity — with a healthy dose of snake puns from good-humored Twitter users.

A spokesperson for Aldi never confirmed whether there really was a critter in the can, but they did explain that the spoiled beans' snake-like appearance may have been caused by exposure to air due to a packaging breach. Hopefully the two bottles of complimentary wine from her local Aldi helped the shopper forget about her snake scare.

Aldi has a reputation for being a store where you can find surprising and eccentric products, but they're usually located in the Aldi Finds section, not floating in your legumes. Snake or no snake, Aldi has previously confirmed when unexpected animals were discovered in its products, such as when some of its beef items contained large percentages of horse meat back in 2013. Still, it seems that most surprises found in Aldi products are lower on the nightmare scale, such as when a customer received some un-mixed green food coloring in their avocado dip from the grocer.

We may never know the truth about the snake beans, but at least the woman at the center of the incident saw the funny side of it all. In the replies to her original tweet, she wrote, "I don't even know if I can look at another bean in my life at this point. But, if and when I'm ready, @HeinzUK slither into my DMs." Time will tell, but it's safe to say any snake-related publicity might keep Corale beans off Aldi shoppers' list of favorite cult items for the time being.