Nikata Moran, 20, “couldn’t believe” when she made the discovery in her own fridge.
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Nikata recalled that she noticed something moving “out of the corner of my eye” when she opened the fridge door.
She was even more stunned when she looked closer and saw a “little head” poking out from among the summer fruits, which she had picked up at Lidl.
She explained: “When I looked again I saw this tiny gecko, I couldn’t believe it.
“It seemed very alert, so I managed to get it onto a spoon and pop it into a plastic container, where it moved very, very fast.
“I just can’t get over the journey it had, ending up in my kitchen.”
The tiny reptile was, in fact, an Egyptian gecko which had somehow travelled nearly 3,000 miles hidden away in the punnet.
Nikata popped the little creature in a plastic container and called the RSPCA to get it re-homed.
It was collected by RSPCA inspector Rachel Henderson, and checked over by a vet specialising in exotic animals.
Rachel said: “I have no idea how something so tiny survived for such a long time in transit in a sealed-up container.”
The creature was then take to Reptilia Exotic Animal Rescue in Ossett, West Yorkshire.
A spokesperson for the rescue said that imported geckos were surprisingly common and “adapt well to captivity”.
Nikata’s little stowaway has apparently “settled in well” and will be re-homed once his quarantine period is over.
It comes after a couple found a lizard in their bag of spinach in a similarly unusual discovery.
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