- A woman found a snake coiled in her shopping cart at a Trader Joe’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- She didn’t notice it at first, and other shoppers assumed it was her pet snake.
- When she saw it, she told INSIDER she “screamed and threw my purse and generally created a scene.”
- Trader Joe’s in Baton Rouge declined INSIDER’s request for comment.
- Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.
Amy Gaudet Rabalais had just dropped her kids off at school and decided to swing by Trader Joe’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shortly after it opened.
Read more: 10 incredible foods you can only get at Trader Joe’s
After five minutes, a fellow shopper asked, “Excuse me, but is that your pet snake?”
It wasn’t.
Unbeknownst to Rabalais, a small snake had coiled itself inside her cart, hitching a ride as she shopped for groceries.
“I screamed and threw my purse and generally created a scene,” Rabalais told INSIDER. “Later the guy found me and said he had watched me walk around with the snake for about five minutes and he assumed it was my pet because I was so calm.”
Rabalais posted a photo of the stowaway snake on Facebook, where it was shared over 5,000 times.
“Trader Joe’s wasn’t joking when they say they get new things in daily!!” she wrote. Judging by the comments on the post, she wasn’t the only one alarmed.
“I have never been there and never will go,” said one commenter. “I like snakes, but not in my grocery cart!” wrote another.
Trader Joe’s did not respond to INSIDER’s requests for comment. A representative for the Trader Joe’s store in Baton Rouge declined INSIDER’s request for comment.
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