During a train ride to London during the New Year holiday, the conductor had to make an unexpected stop for police after it was reported that a small jet-black scorpion had made its way out of a luggage bag from one of the passengers.
Image Credit: Exotic Pet Refuge/Facebook
The passenger whose bag it came from was reportedly from Guatemala as BBC reports, a place in the world where many different scorpion types are a common sight. That said, this wasn’t much of a surprise after the origin of the bag was identified.
The scorpion obviously wasn’t placed there on purpose, it just so happened to be an accidental hitchhiker.
Officials were reportedly able to trap the scorpion inside of an ice cream tub to isolate it from the passengers of the train, where it was then removed from the vehicle and relocated to a nearby pet refuge for safe keeping.
Fortunately, no one was hurt by the scorpion, which officials say was only about three-quarters of an inch long. Smaller scorpions, similar to this size, are typically the most dangerous and their venom can be deadly.
Examinations afterwards have helped experts identify this particular creature as a non-deadly specimen. While a sting would have hurt about as much as the equivalent of three wasp stings, anyone who would’ve been stung by it probably would have survived.
According to several reports, that very same scorpion is currently perfectly fine and wasn’t harmed during its transportation. It’s now being cared for and kept safe by experts at the refuge.
Exotic Pet Refuge has shared photographs of the creature from when they received it and where it is now on its Facebook page:
Source: BBC