A team of roofers experienced an ‘adrenaline rush’ when they found a live scorpion in a box of roofing slates.
Jamie Cooke said his team were working on a job at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth when they made the surprising discovery in the box, which had come from Brazil.
On Monday, the roofers found the scorpion, which was about 1 cm long.
The animal was taken to Plymouth Reptiles in Cattedown, Plymouth, where bosses said they suspected it was a common European scorpion, which was not deadly.
Mr Cooke said it was his brother Ben who found the scorpion when he was taking slate tiles out of a box at about 9:30am (BST).
“Ben walked to the bottom of the box and then suddenly said, ‘There’s a scorpion in there.’
“I didn’t believe him, so I went to look and after carefully removing all the slate, I saw it.”
Mr Cooke, 30, who owns Ocean City Roofing, said it was an “adrenaline-pumping” moment when the scorpion was found and it caused a lot of excitement among his colleagues.
Mr Cooke said he had come across other animals and insects in boxes during his work, but never a scorpion.
“It was honestly quite exciting.
“I wasn’t scared when I saw the scorpion, I think the adrenaline was pumping through my body.”
Mr Cooke and his colleagues managed to put the scorpion in another box and took it to Plymouth Reptiles, an organisation that rescues exotic animals.
Shop owner Mark Craddock said it wasn’t the first time he had to take in or rescue a scorpion.
He said that although the box came from Brazil, the animal resembled a common European scorpion, which is not native to that country.
“It could have gotten into the box somewhere during transportation from here to Brazil,” Craddock said.
“You wouldn’t want to get stung by it, but it’s not fatal.”
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