A man got the fright of his life when he looked inside his suitcase after returning home from a holiday to Cuba.
David Judd spotted a scorpion scurrying around at the bottom of his case as he unpacked his clothes. He immediately slammed the case shut before carefully managing to catch the scorpion with a pair of litter picking-style tongs and putting it into a plastic tub.
David believes the creature, which he has named Brian, is a Cuban Bark Scorpion, a type described as being capable of inflicting a painful, venomous sting, but not said to be as potent as some of its killer arachnid relatives, the MEN reports.
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David landed at Manchester Airport on Friday morning after a two-week holiday just outside Havana with his wife, Amanda, 48. He said: "I don't think he's deadly.
"I have been looking them up online and, thankfully, the word 'fatal' hasn't yet cropped up, although I have seen the words 'very poisonous'. It's very bizarre and we have no idea how he has got inside our luggage.
"I have been stung twice by a bee in my life before - and that was enough." David, a voice actor who had his leg amputated following an accident in 2014, said he began to sort through their luggage after they arrived back home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, following the eight-hour flight to Manchester.
He said: "We got home and I opened up the first suitcase, which was mine.
"I was taking everything out manually with my hands but when I reached the bottom of the case, I saw this brown thing out of the coroner of my eye. It was making a rustling sound and I thought 'that's not normal'.
"The suitcase has a lining around the inside and it scurried underneath the clothes.
"At first I thought it was a big fly until I picked the next garment up and saw this thing coming towards me. When it expands with its pincers out and tail up it looks even bigger than it actually is.
"I opened up the second suitcase with the same pair of litter picker grabbers I managed to catch the scorpion with but thankfully, there was nothing inside that one.
"They concertina themselves up when they get scared, but this one apparently does have a sting. I finally managed to catch him and put it inside the tub with the lid not on fully so it has plenty of air to breathe and put it in the kitchen."
The couple were staying at a hotel about an hour out of Havana and David said he posted details of his creepy holiday souvenir on the hotel's Facebook page, sparking interesting feedback.
He said: "Apparently, huge storms bring scorpions out because they also bring the insects out, and there was a big storm when we were there.
"They like little nooks and crannies as well apparently. We did put some clothing that we had worn on the floor and we were on the ground floor, so it could have got in then."
David, who didn't try to feed Brian the scorpion, said he even rang the police for advice via the 101 number, but was told to contact a pet shop. He said: "I have managed to get Brian a new home. I contacted a tropical pet shop in Wakefield and asked if they wanted to take it in and they did.
"He's now living at Aquatica tropical pet shop in Wakefield. They put him in a container with soil and such like then gave him a couple of crickets which he devoured immediately.
"So it's a happy ending for our Cuban friend, even though he's now in a different country."
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