12-year-old Megan Templeton was shopping with her father for some watermelons and hamburgers for their Memorial Day cook-out when she was stung by a stowaway scorpion that had made a home in the produce section of her local Walmart.

From the Charleston Daily Mail:

The Milton Middle School student jerked her hand out of the produce box to find a stinger in her finger and a tan, 1-inch-long creature still attached, William said.

The girl turned to her father and said something he at first didn’t believe.

“She said a scorpion stung her on the finger,” William, 36, said. “I didn’t believe her at first, but then I saw it run underneath (the box).”

William said he immediately called his wife, Paula, who is a paramedic, and told her what had happened.

Paula drove to the store, picked up Megan and rushed her to nearby Cabell-Huntington Hospital.

William said before his wife had even arrived, Wal-Mart employees were on the scene and helped scoop up the exotic arachnid so it could be taken to the hospital for identification purposes.

William said he also peeled a sticker off a watermelon showing the shipment was from Mexico, which he hoped could help hospital workers treat his daughter.

The sting was harmless, but it caused a stir at the West Virginia hospital where Megan was treated. No one had ever seen a scorpion sting before. “They had to look it up on the Internet because it is so unusual in the area,” Megan’s father said. “Everybody came down to look at it.” Walmart says they’ll be checking that watermelon shipment for more scorpions– just in case.

12-year-old W.Va. girl gets scorpion bite in the produce department [Charleston Daily Mail]
(Photo: babasteve )

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