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Woman makes bizarre discovery inside bag of carrots


A woman found something unexpected sealed into a bag of carrots she had bought in a supermarket.

Pia Ruf, 61, from Riken in the northern Swiss town of Aargau, found a Samsung Galaxy mobile inside a packet of carrots bought from discount supermarket chain Lidl.

“I was in Lidl in Rothrist and needed carrots, among other things,” she told local media.

“I put the first two bags back, I didn’t like them. The third one ended up in the shopping basket.”

Without noticing the phone in the carrots, she drove home and was in for a surprise while unpacking the bags in the kitchen.

“Suddenly I stopped short,” she said.

“Was my mobile phone laying in the bag of carrots?”

A woman was shocked to find a Samsung Galaxy phone inside her bag of carrots. Source: CEN/Australscope
A woman was shocked to find a Samsung Galaxy phone inside her bag of carrots. Source: CEN/Australscope

When she figured out the phone was sealed inside the bag with the carrots, she says she started suspecting it was implanted to spy on her or that it would explode.

She reported her find to police and went to local newspaper Zofinger Tagblatt with the phone.

The news then reached Lidl and the packagers. In a statement Lidl said they “assume the mobile belongs to an agricultural worker.”

When packaging company Emil Knopf AG found out about the matter, they got involved and wanted to make things right.

Manager Urlich Knopf said: “Lidl is a big customer of ours. We want to trace everything back accurately.”

From the bag’s lot number, he was able to trace the worker whose phone it is, but refused to reveal their identity “out of data protection reasons.”

He added that he would reward Pia for reporting her find.

Swiss woman, Pia Ruf, thought she must have accidentally dropped her own phone into the bag. Source: CEN/Australscope
Swiss woman, Pia Ruf, thought she must have accidentally dropped her own phone into the bag. Source: CEN/Australscope

He said: “She has deserved something for the hassle she received because of the mobile. Ten bags of carrots or so.”

The only thing he cannot figure out is how the phone endured all the washing and bathing it got during the carrot production.

Because Knopf himself has worked on a conveyor belt, he said he understands how the oversight happened after a long working day, but stressed the importance of foreign objects not ending up in packages.

Lidl reported their supplier “will examine the process of quality control.” Meanwhile, the phone has been returned to its owner.

As for Pia, she said she would continue shopping at Lidl: “Maybe I will find something better in a bag of carrots sometime.”

Lidl reported their supplier ‘will examine the process of quality control’. Source: File/Getty
Lidl reported their supplier ‘will examine the process of quality control’. Source: File/Getty