A dead lizard was found taped to a parcel which was delivered to the home of a Daventry mother.
Lindsey Coe, 25, said she felt sick when she opened the cardboard box to find the dead reptile inside.
She said: “It made me feel sick. There’s not many things that would but that really turned my stomach.”
Miss Coe, of Stanley Way, Daventry, took delivery of the parcel from home shopping company Studio 24 yesterday (Tuesday).
She said: “It arrived and it had some greasy jelly on the outside of it which I had to wipe off. I thought it must have come from inside the van.
“It was a dressing table so it was really heavy but I carried it upstairs,”
Miss Coe sat with her daughter Molly, 3, while they began to build the dressing table.
Miss Coe said: “I lifted the box lid and there was some polystyrene inside with a tiny lizard which was dead taped to it.
“It was under the celloptape, all black and dead.
“It made me feel sick.”
Miss Coe took a photo of the lizard and tried to keep her daughter away from it before carrying on building the dressing table.
She said: “Then I found a massive dent in the corner. It was broken so I called Studio 24 to tell them.
“They were quite surprised I’d found a dead lizard.
“They told me to dismantle it, package it back up and that someone would collect it tomorrow.
“Then they rang back to say that due to a health and safety the normal company couldn’t pick it up and it would need a special courier.
“So it was OK for me to have a dead lizard here in my house but not OK for them to pick it up.
“Now I’m stuck with the box and a dead lizard for up to seven days in my house.”
Studio 24 said via Twitter: “Just to avoid any confusion - we will be collecting your parcel, our QC dept will be in touch to arrange.
“There’s no health and safety issue, it’s solely to ensure the return gets to our QC dept ASAP for investigation.
“They will investigate to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Please accept our apologies for this matter.”