“It was a bit of a shock. I thought she was joking at first, but I backed off when I saw it moving,” Neville said. “The guy in the shop was pretty frightened too.”

The snake was taken to a local zoo for identification. Staff initially believed it to be a young ladder snake, but Dr. Steven J R Allain, aka The Pop-Punk Herpetologist, disagreed. “Having reviewed the photo of the snake in the broccoli, I’m not sure the zoo identified it correctly,” Allain told Bored Panda. “To my expert eyes, this is actually a viperine water snake (Natrix maura), a harmless fish-eating species native to southwestern Europe and northern Africa.”

The journey to the UK and then to Neville’s home took some time, but Allain explained that viperine water snakes can go for months without food. The cold of the fridge would have slowed its metabolism, reducing its energy needs.

“These snakes are only dangerous to fish or frogs,” Allain said. “They don’t bite humans as a defense mechanism—they’d rather play dead. They are non-venomous to humans.”