This Massive Wild Animal Surprised One Australian Supermarket Shopper

It's been said that "all PR is good PR." But we don't think Woolworths — one of Australia's leading grocery chains (via Woolworths Group) — had this type of PR in mind when it made global news this week. The grocery store had one surprising visitor which decided to play peek-a-boo with a fellow shopper in the spice aisle. 

Shopper Helaina Alati says she was wandering around the spice aisle to look for something to perk up her chicken dinner with, when a 10-foot long diamond python emerged from the shadows to say hello. "I didn't initially see it because it was curled up way back behind the little jars of spices. I kind of turned to my right and it poked its head out," Alati said. 

Fortunately for the rascally reptile, the woman is a trained snake catcher, and while she was startled by his sudden appearance, she didn't cause a scene. "Thankfully, I have a background in snakes so I was pretty calm about it. It definitely shocked me a little bit because I wasn't expecting it," she said.

Woolworths had this to say about the incident: "A slippery and rare customer was spotted in the spice aisle of our Glenorie store (outside Sydney) yesterday morning. Once it was sighted, our team members reacted quickly and calmly to cordon off the area for the safety of customers. A snake catcher removed the slithery customer, who was released safely into bushland shortly after," (via News.com.au)

This isn't the first time wildlife has been spotted scouring supermarket aisles. Closer to home, a bear was seen hanging out at a Ralph's near Los Angeles before taking off for Walmart about a week prior.

One social media user said the latest wildlife incursion was enough proof that staying home under a lockdown order was a safer bet, no matter what circumstances were. "You go outside a kangaroo will attack you or a koala will drop on your head and rip you apart. Go to the supermarket and there's snakes in the spice section," they commented (via Twitter).