AN investigation has been launched after a young mum discovered a scorpion in clothes from her ironing basket – which she believes had crawled there from her shopping bags. Laura Miller was left reeling with shock when she found the scorpion climbing insi

AN investigation has been launched after a young mum discovered a scorpion in clothes from her ironing basket - which she believes had crawled there from her shopping bags.

Laura Miller was left reeling with shock when she found the scorpion climbing inside a pair of jeans. She believes it came from a fruit bowl containing bananas she had just bought from ASDA in Wisbech.

But when she confronted staff at the North End store she was angry because she says staff thought the incident was amusing.

Laura, 20, of Main Road, Friday Bridge said: "They thought it was amusing but they are not the ones who have a baby crawling around. It really frightened me. It could have got to my daughter Grace who is six and a half months old and crawling all over the place.

"I was very upset and they just thought I was bothered about getting a refund for the bananas. One member of staff even said she thought it would be cool to find a scorpion"

The drama began last Thursday when Laura took a pair of jeans from the basket and noticed something crawling out the bottom of one of the legs.

She said: "I automatically thought it was a spider and because I am terrified of spiders I steamed it with the iron.

"Then I realised it was still crawling and it crawled back up the inside of the leg and I ironed over it again so it was sandwiched between the material. I got a bit of kitchen roll to put it on and it was then I realised it wasn't a spider."

Laura took it to a pet supplier where staff said they thought it was an Israeli Gold scorpion which is mildly venomous, but with a painful sting if it gets agitated.

But after we sent our photograph to ASDA a spokesman said: "The picture is of a scorpion that is not native to Cameroon or the African continent. Given that we source all our bananas from these places, we're confused as to how this could have been in her bunch of bananas."

ASDA says it has a rigorous inspection procedure from when bananas are picked until they reach the shelves.

Laura has been asked to take the scorpion into the store. The spokesman said: "We can send it off for testing and hopefully then understand how it made its way there. "We sell 10 million bananas on a weekly basis and this is the only reported incident. "It goes without saying that we are very sorry for any upset this may have caused We have given Laura a double refund , but if she would like to come into the store and discuss this matter further, our store manager would be more than happy to accommodate.