Photo by Nicole Lopez-Alvar
Audio By Carbonatix
Avocados haven’t gone this viral since Millennials discovered avocado toast in 2011. A Florida couple has just found a bullet casing in a Publix avocado. Yes, the story is avo-control.
On Sunday, July 5, podcaster Syd Meyer and her boyfriend Chris Gleadall shared a video on Instagram depicting them finding a bullet shell casing in an avocado they purchased at Publix. The video already has over 22,000 likes and 472,000 views. (And that’s not even including over a million views with a second collaboration post they did overnight with Only in Dade.)
The caption reads, “Publix, free avocados for life?? What do you do when this happens?” Hours later, around 9 a.m., Publix responded with a direct message that reads, “Hi there. I’m sorry to see this. Which store location did you purchase from?” A Publix spokesperson, who didn’t respond to questions from New Times, commented on the post Monday morning, alerting the poster to their message.
It is unclear which South Florida Publix location this avocado was purchased from, but it appears to be a Hass avocado, which Publix is known to sell.
Screenshot via Instagram/@syd.mmeyer
The video that broke the internet
The video (bearing a Florida Keys location tag) opens up with the couple explaining they found a shell casing in their avocado. They then proceeded to dissect the bright gold metal from their little green patient. What’s so funny is that the casing is shoved (or shot) in a way that mimics an actual avocado stem.
“What the fuck? No way!” Meyer is heard saying as the man carves the casing free. She didn’t respond to New Times’ request for comment.
The comments are pure gold
The comments were ripe with warnings about eating contaminated food, explanations as to how it got there, and, the real reason anyone goes to any comment section, jokes.
“This is how you find out Publix buys cartel avocados,” one joked.
“Did we not know that there are literally avocado mafias?? Lol,” another wrote.
“People do realize that this is an empty casing, right? It doesn’t get fired out of the barrel; it gets ejected from the breach. Someone would have had to pick this spent casing up and shove it into a growing avocado; it’s not that serious. Probably a kid or a bored farmhand, definitely not the result of some cartel shootout,” one user explained.
Screenshot via Instagram/@syd.mmeyer
Not the first time this happens
Believe it or not, there is some precedent for finding bullets in grocery store avocados. The Prospect Journal offers a logical explanation. The $3.1 billion Mexican avocado industry is controlled by local cartels, which force many avocado businesses to pay protection fees.
While Publix didn’t respond to New Times’ request for comment nor to questions like where they get their avocados, reporting in 2025 by produce trade publication The Packer indicates Publix sources them not just from Mexico, but from California and South Florida, as well.
