A rare orange lobster was released back into the wild this week after an observant shopper spotted it at a local grocery store. The unusual creature, which experts quickly nicknamed Jean-Clawed Van Damme, represents an extraordinary one-in-30-million occurrence, according to Humane Long Island and the New York Aquarium, who helped with its release.

Kyle Brancato was shopping at a Tops grocery store in upstate New York when he noticed something extraordinary. ‘I walked by the lobster tank, and I saw this bright orange lobster,’ he told WHAM, a local CNN affiliate. ‘It was very different from all the other ones in the tank.’ He realized that other shoppers had probably passed it by, thinking it might be diseased because of its unusual color. Determined to save the creature, Brancato purchased the lobster and took immediate action to care for it properly. ‘I borrowed some tank water from Palmer’s restaurant down the road,’ he explained. ‘That bought me enough time to go to Petco and pick up a 20-gallon tank.’ He then filled the tank with special sea water and carefully adjusted the temperature to ensure the lobster’s survival.

The timing of the release proved particularly meaningful, as the orange lobster was returned to the Long Island Sound on Wednesday, just one day before National Lobster Day. This annual celebration marks the peak of the US lobster harvesting season, when thousands of regular lobsters typically end up being served in restaurants.

This fortunate orange lobster’s story mirrors a similar rescue in Ontario in 2021. In that case, a Canadian couple saved another orange lobster that had been held captive in a grocery store tank. That lobster had been shunned by shoppers due to its unusual color and was apparently being picked on by other lobsters. However, instead of being released, it found a new home in an aquarium.