A farmer in Australia was in for a surprise after he found a live frog in a bag of lettuce. Rhys Smoker had been preparing a steak and salad dinner for his friends in Esperance, Western Australia, when he spotted the frog among the leaves inside the sealed plastic bag he had bought from a supermarket.
The Discovery
His housemate, Laura Jones, said: ‘He’s like, “Oh bro, there’s a frog in the lettuce”. And we’re like, “No, you’re taking the mick, like that’s not real”.’ Mr Smoker brought the bag into the lounge room to show Ms Jones and her partner, Billy Le Pine. ‘Obviously, there’s a little frog hiding out and, yeah, we all had a little laugh about it,’ Ms Jones said.
Naming and Release
Mr Le Pine said they named the frog Greg before releasing it at a pond near the house. ‘We thought we’d give him a wee send-off tune as we played Crazy Frog for him,’ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Crazy Frog is a Swedish CGI-animated character and Eurodance musician.
Mr Smoker and his partner, Lilli Ashby, had bought the lettuce at a Woolworths supermarket in Esperance the same day Greg was discovered.
Previous Incidents
Five years ago, a shopper confronted a three-metre-long non-venomous diamond python on a shelf of a Woolworths supermarket in Sydney. Also in 2021, a shopper discovered a venomous pale-headed snake wrapped in plastic with lettuce in an Aldi supermarket in Sydney.
Woolworths Response
Woolworths said the frog in the salad was an isolated incident and there had been no other similar cases reported. ‘Our teams are investigating this with our suppliers as a priority,’ a Woolworths statement said. The company apologised to the household and provided a replacement bag of lettuce.
