Jacqueline and her daughter now think twice when they order something from the Chinese web store Shein. The new school bag of Arianna (10) contained ‘a beast’. The girl is startled and throws the bag on the floor. Mother Jacqueline first thinks of a moth, but once closer she gets the shock of her life. It turns out to be a scorpion. “Yes, then it was panic … I thought: that beast has to leave my house.”
Daughter Arianna could not wait on Wednesday to open her new school bag. So when the package came from China, it was quickly unpacked. “She shouted very loudly,” Mama, a beast! ” Because she doesn’t like it that way, “Jacqueline looks back. “She dropped the bag and looked at a distance that she was shocked.”
So it turned out not to be a moth. “I thought: what a strange form it has. When I got closer, I just saw it.” Jacqueline does not change his mind and tells her daughter that she should open doors. “I grabbed that bag and that animal aimed the front door, out of pure fright.” Because the Tilburgse knows that scorpions can be very toxic.
“I didn’t want anyone here to be convulsive here.”
But the realization comes back safely. “I live in a child -rich neighborhood, there are many dogs here and that poisonous scorpion is now walking outside. I don’t want my conscience that a child, cat or dog will be shocking here.” So she goes outside again and catches the scorpion with a shelf and plastic container and brings him back inside.
Then she calls an acquaintance that knows reptiles. He does not stand up and so she tries it upset with her ex-girlfriend. “I asked that she could come now. She couldn’t believe it at first, but then she called De Oliemeulen Zoo for advice.” In the afternoon, ‘Snippie’ the Scorpio could go there. Scorpions can go without food and drink for a long time and that is why the reptile has survived the journey from China.
“It was quiet for three seconds when I told it.”
Jacqueline himself could not be there. “I had to work, and would come too late. Just explain that to your boss. It also stopped for three seconds when I told. A Scorpio in the house … That is something else as an excuse,” Jacqueline says laughing.
Daughter Arianna asked her mother if she would kill the scorpion. “I explained to her that ‘snippie’ cannot do anything about it that she is toxic.” They, indeed. Because on Thursday morning Jacqueline was called by De Oliemeulen with news about the Chinese Golden Scorpio.
“Maybe I had more in the house.”
“She had a boy. So it was a pregnant female.” But the cheerful feeling turns into concern almost as quickly. “How do those animals actually like? I might have more scorpions in the house now? Yes, I know a lot!” But no panic: Jacqueline and Arianna don’t have to worry, the caregivers assured the carers. And so they will soon go on a maternity visit to their ‘snippie’.
Yet the hair does not let go completely that it could have ended differently. “What if I had opened the package a day later, or was stabbed? They don’t have the antigif everywhere, I think.”
From now on Jacqueline only orders soft things at Shein and Temu. “Then I can jump on it when it is inside,” she says laughing.
