Police in Sydney responded to numerous calls reporting a violent domestic dispute to find a man screaming about a spider. Neighbours of the man in Wollstonecraft, a suburb on Sydney's lower North Shore, had reported a woman screaming hysterically and man yelling: "I'm going to kill you, you're dead. Die! Die!"

Police arrived at the house to find a flushed and out of breath man. They posted this transcript of what happened next on their Facebook page:

Police: "Where's your wife"

Male: "umm I don't have one"

Police: "Where your girlfriend"

Male: "umm I don't have one"

Police: "We had a report of a domestic and a women screaming, where is she?"

Male: "I don't know what you're talking about I live alone"

Police: "Come on mate people clearly heard you yelling you were going to kill her and furniture getting thrown around the unit"

At this point the male became very sheepish.

Police: "come on mate, what have you done to her."

Male: "it was a spider"

Police "Sorry??"

Male: "It was a spider, a really big one!!

Police :"what about the women screaming?"

Male: "Yeah sorry that was me, I really really hate spiders"

The officers checked the property to make sure he was telling the truth and found no one else there – apart from a dead spider.