A curbside order of green beans from HEB arrived with an extra: A small creature, its head raised among the pods. The shopper @taoreed_x posted the footage to TikTok over a single line of text: “My WIFE ordered curbside green beans @HEB not a SNAKE WTH….”
What Did They Find Inside H-E-B Order?
There’s no narration across the 12-second clip, but they do use the overused saxophone sample from the fateful scene in Boyz N the Hood. It’s just the trimmed pods, the creature’s head lifted into frame, and a saxophone sample now impossible to escape on the app. They added that his wife was only offered a $20 gift card for the trouble.
People Are Skeptical
“That’s a lie HEB green beans aren’t packed that way,” claimed one person.
Another person wrote, “What H-E-B is this one? I’ve never seen green beans of this sort ever packaged like this at any H-E-B in Houston.”
But others disagreed and even shared photos of bags of green beans.
“Organic food. You can’t complain,” joked another person.
To the point of the music, one said, “Green beans are still good though… it happens. And we really don’t need saxophones for a frog in our veggies, mate.”
Others believed the creature was not a snake at all, but instead was a frog. However, it is difficult to confirm from a 12-second video.
How Often Does This Happen?
Wildlife in the grocery chain is more common than the produce aisle lets on. A 2019 review of news reports counted 40 animals—frogs, lizards, rodents, a bat—turning up in bagged salads across 20 states. In 10 cases, the stowaway was still alive, Live Science reported.
In February 2025, a New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer answered a call at a Market Basket in Manchester. They found a mildly venomous ornate cat-eyed snake, native to Ecuador, in a banana shipment. Officer Griffin McKeown, who had fielded surrendered pet pythons before, told WMUR the call was a first. “never, never [a] venomous snake,” he said.
The produce doesn’t have to be imported. When a church group in Farmington, Utah, scooped canned Western Family green beans from a slow cooker in 2016, Troy Walker found a severed snake head on her spoon. “That’s when I just dropped it and screamed,” she told KSL. Western Family pulled the batch; CFO Pete Craven said foreign matter “is not something we take lightly.”
A Sydney, Australia shopper, Alex White, unpacked cos lettuces from an ALDI in 2021 and watched what he took for a worm flick a tongue; a handler carried off a venomous pale-headed snake that night. White said he “completely freaked out.” ALDI said it was investigating.
@taoreed_x/
Subplot reached out to HEB via email, and to @taoreed_x via TikTok message and comment.
