Maryland couple say they found live scorpion in bagged spinach

A Maryland couple say they found a live scorpion inside a package of spinach that was purchased from a Giant food store.

Giant is an American supermarket chain found mainly in the northeast, known for their slogan: “The quality food people.”

Sri Sindhusha Boddapati of Chevy Chase, Md., told NBC Washington that she was making lunch on Monday when she noticed something crawling inside the bag.

“I thought it was a cricket in the beginning,” she said.

Boddapati said she then slid the critter into an empty water bottle.

“I noticed when it was in the bottle that it was a scorpion.”

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Her husband, Shanmukha Pranay Rajeev Jerripothula, took the bottle to the Landover store where they bought the spinach. He says he asked store officials to stop selling the spinach, but they refused.

After being contacted by local news media, the Giant location in Landover said they pulled the product from their shelves, six hours after Jerripothula approached them.

In a statement, the store called it an “isolated incident.” The company has not issued a recall on the product.

“Customer satisfaction is our highest priority. We regret any inconvenience to our customer. We take the quality of our products very seriously, and we are following up with the supplier to take every step to ensure this isolated incident does not occur in the future.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Customer satisfaction is our highest priority. We regret any inconvenience to our customer. We take the quality of our products very seriously, and we are following up with the supplier to take every step to ensure this isolated incident does not occur in the future."

— With files from the Associated Press