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UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA
I couldn’t believe it when I found a live NEWT in my Morrisons shopping – I had no idea what to do
A VEGETARIAN was left horrified after finding a live newt wriggling around in a 99p packet of pak choi from Morrisons.
Vagner Cuna, a languages student from Camden, swore in shock when he spotted a little brown amphibian nestled between the cabbage leaves.
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He had been about to airfry the creature along with his veg, before he flipped over the packet of greens from his local store and spotted it.
The 23-year-old said: “I was chatting to my brother, Roy, on the phone and I was about to put the pak choi in the airfryer.
“I opened the packet, I flipped it - and that’s when I saw it
“I wish my initial reaction was recorded because it was so funny.
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"I was talking to my brother nice and calmly and then I just went ‘f**k!’.
“My brother was really worried, he thought I’d burnt myself or someone had got into the house or something."
Vagner, who also works as a dancer, thought he'd discovered a lizard of some sort but had no idea what to do with it.
Pictures and videos show the little maroon-coloured creature wriggling lazily around inside the plastic packaging.
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Vagner's brother Roy hurried home, and along with a neighbour they concocted a plan to return the beastie to its natural habitat.
He added: “I have never had a pet in my life, I have zero idea how to maintain this animal.
“Initially I just thought OK, I can just take it back to Morrisons - but then for a 99p packet of veg, was it really worth it?
“Plus I had no idea what they were going to do - they might just throw him in the bin or something.”
Instead Vagner took the it to his local pet shop - who said they wouldn’t be able to take it off him, but kindly offered a free cage and some advice.
Vagner learned it was actually a smooth newt, an amphibious creature that needed water to stay alive.
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The pet shop advised him to ring London Zoo, who in turn said they couldn’t help but put the student in touch with a local vet - but after being passed from department to department, he still had no idea what to do.
Luckily a pal who studied veterinary medicine and had seen the saga unfold on Vagner’s social media got in touch.
The friend told him the little newt needed to be released onto a river bank or similarly moist area, but not in the water.
After an overnight stay in the borrowed cage - and nibbling on some of the pak choi he had been found in - Vagner carried the creature to Regent’s park where he let him go.
He admitted that towards the end of their adventure he had actually started to find the newt quite cute - and would have hung onto him if he had more experience with pets.
A spokesperson for Morrisons said: “We'd like to thank Vagner for arranging the safe release of the newt back into the wild.
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“And apologise for our four-legged friend, who felt the need to become a bit of a "newt-saince" by making its way into a bag of pak choi."
Vagner's surprise find comes a month after a gobsmacked Tesco customer made a shocking discovery in her pasta bake.
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