'Obviously in America': Florida Couple Finds Bullet Casing Inside 99¢ Publix Avocado

A Florida Keys couple got an unexpected shock after discovering a spent shell casing lodged inside a 99-cent avocado they bought at Publix. Podcaster Syd Meyer and her boyfriend, Chris Gleadall, were preparing dinner when they noticed something strange about the fruit.

The couple recorded themselves examining the unusual discovery and shared the video on Instagram. The clip went viral, with reports later saying it had attracted hundreds of thousands of views. The pair said they bought the avocado on Sunday, 5 July, at the Publix at 1000 Overseas Highway in Marathon.

The 'Stem' Was Actually a Bullet Casing

Meyer and Gleadall had intended to make turkey avocado bowls for dinner. However, before they could start preparing the meal, Meyer noticed that the fruit's stem looked unusual.

'I pull out the avocado, ready to prepare it, and I'm kind of looking at it like, this stem looks really weird,' Gleadall later recalled. He said he noticed a marking on the metal and believed it was a .22-caliber cartridge casing.

The pair began filming as they removed the object from the avocado. 'What the fuck? No way!' Meyer exclaimed when they realised what they had found. Gleadall also joked, 'Hopefully, it doesn't explode,' before describing the casing as 'kind of spent'. The cartridge casing appeared to be lodged in a way that made it resemble an avocado stem, adding to the surprise.

Social Media Had a Field Day

The unusual discovery prompted a flood of jokes and speculation online. Commenters coined names including 'ammo-cado' and 'bullet-cado', while another quipped, 'Holy Glock-a-mole!'

Some users took the discovery more seriously, questioning how a spent casing could have ended up inside commercially sold produce. One commenter joked that the discovery proved Publix buys 'cartel avocados', while another referred to an 'avocado mafia'. The comments were jokes and speculation, however, and there is no evidence in the reporting reviewed for this story that the avocado or casing was connected to a cartel, organised crime, or a shooting.

One commenter offered a possible explanation for the bizarre discovery: 'People do realise that this is an empty casing, right? It doesn't get fired out of the barrel; it gets ejected from the breech.' The user argued that someone would have had to pick up the spent casing and place it inside the growing fruit, adding, 'It's not that serious. Probably a kid or a bored farmhand, definitely not the result of some cartel shootout.'

After the video was posted, Publix responded on Instagram, asking which store the avocado had been purchased from. In a follow-up video, the couple spoke with a person they appeared to identify as a store manager, who offered them a replacement avocado.

It's Not the First 'Ammo-cado'

The bizarre discovery is not without precedent. In June 2017, a Reddit user posted a photo that appeared to show a small-caliber bullet lodged inside an avocado. The user said the avocado had been bought by a friend at Sprouts.

The Reddit post did not identify the shopper or the Sprouts location, and the available reporting did not establish how the object ended up inside the fruit.