A scorpion traveled from Kenya to Ireland.
What sounds like the start of a bad joke became a reality for Lorraine Dempsey, who returned home from a trip to Kenya and found a scorpion in her luggage.
The fat-tailed scorpion, which was later named Kenny, hitched a 4,000-mile ride to Dempsey's home in Ireland. It then spent nearly two weeks inside the bag it traveled in before Dempsey unpacked.
"Unbeknownst to me has spent the last 12 day in my bedroom having stowed away in my luggage from a horseriding trip to Kenya," Dempsey wrote on Facebook with photos of the scorpion.
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Dempsey originally believed the scorpion was a deathstalker, one of the most venomous and dangerous breeds. That understandable misidentification likely added to the panic when the scorpion went missing underneath the bed after Dempsey first encountered it.
"I had a 5 second encounter with Kenny this morning before he disappeared under the bed and my brain exploded trying to process what I had just discovered," Dempsey wrote. "After several phone calls with experts and friends, a brave team was assembled and we successfully captured Kenny after an hour and a half searching."
Dempsey placed the scorpion in what looked like a takeout food container and attached a hand-written sign on it that was labeled "*Scorpion* Do not open!"
Dempsey wrote that the scorpion was headed to National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny.
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"Bye bye Kenny the Kenyan Death Stalker," she wrote in a subsequent Facebook post. "Kind of sad to see the back of him. He was given a big welcome and quickly secured in the venomous section of the National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny. It's up to the Department of Agriculture to decide if they can keep him but hope he can stay and we can go back and visit sometime. What a weekend!"
James Hennessy, the zoo’s director, told NBC News that the scorpion’s sting was not “medically significant” but could cause some irritation and possible difficulties for people with a breathing problem.
