Posted on 09/26/2003 7:12:05 AM PDT by bedolido
A factory worker found an added ingredient lurking next to his ham roll in his lunch box - a poisonous spider.
Jonathon Sanger found the tarantula when he opened his packed lunch made for him by his mother.
Mr Sanger, 34, who is not afraid of spiders, told her he was "surprised" to find the venomous spider hiding next to a banana.
Customs and Excise spokesman Bob Gaiger said the eight-legged creature was identified as an exotic pink-toed tarantula.
It is thought it had been hiding inside a bunch of bananas bought at a Co-op supermarket in Cross Hands, South Wales, last week.
Mr Sanger's mother, Elizabeth, of Pontlliw, Swansea, said the spider must have been hiding inside a bunch of bananas which had been sitting on her kitchen shelf.
Mr Sanger, who suffers from cerebral palsy and deafness, immediately took the find to his supervisor at the factory.
Mr Gaiger said someone from Customs had retrieved the tarantula and was keeping it safe until its delivery to a new home at the Plantasia Tropical Hothouse in Swansea tomorrow.
A spokeswoman from the Co-op said: "We can't recall an incident like this where spiders have survived the journey and the fumigation process," she said.
"We are investigating it with our suppliers and understand that the bananas were from South America."
Story filed: 18:05 Thursday 25th September 2003
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