Scorpion in his bananas

Photo: The Canadian Press

 A weatherman says he got more than he bargained for during a recent trip to a Costco in Halifax after finding what appeared to be a live scorpion in a bag of bananas.

Nathan Coleman, a reporter for The Weather Network, said he was unloading groceries when his 11-year-old daughter spotted something squirming in a plastic bag.

Coleman said he dismissed the rustling, telling his daughter it was just a slug. He said his mother put away the bananas, and then held up the bag and saw what looked like a scorpion.

"It was as scary as it was shocking," Coleman said in an interview. "It's just such a strange bug."

As a reporter, Coleman has covered his fair share of natural oddities, but he said he never expected to find a scorpion crawling amongst his groceries.

"It's actually very surreal," he said. "I cover all of Atlantic Canada, but I didn't have to go very far to find this story. It was right in my kitchen."

A video posted on The Weather Network website — which has been viewed more than 114,000 times — shows Coleman on his deck holding up a plastic bag, the squirming palm-sized scorpion inside.

Coleman said he double-bagged the arachnid and drove to the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, where it has been jarred for observation.

He said a warehouse manager has apologized to him and he was told Costco is looking into the incident.