Scorpions found in package delivered in Rochester

Rochester, New York — A local man who found live scorpions inside a package which arrived days ago.

“At first I thought it was like a tick, or something. I mean, they were really small,” said Paul Brenner, Joywave drummer.

A package sat quietly on Paul Brenner’s floor all weekend. When he got back home Monday and opened it, he found something he didn’t order.

“That’s when I realized, ‘no, that’s a scorpion,’” Brenner said. “That’s when my shirt left my hands and went into the box.”

According to Brenner, there were about eight little ones, and one really, really big one.

He ordered a T-shirt and some shoes from an internet seller in Hawaii, Brenner said. When he found the creatures, he called 311, then Rochester police were at his door.

“The cops seemed to love it,” Brenner said. “More kept showing up, they had their phones out, some of them were saying ‘I’ve never even seen a scorpion.’”

According to police, the scorpions being there did not seem intentional.

Police say there might’ve been a scorpion that entered the packaging before it was shipped or was inside the item that was shipped.

“That’s almost the scariest part,” Brenner said. “Because, you know, I have a cat. My roommate was home all weekend. And to know that there were live scorpions, feet from my sleeping cat, and I wasn’t there, that’s just creepy. ‘Tis the season I suppose.”

“I was tricked, not treated today,” Brenner said.