Police: Domestic violence call turns out to be man trying to kill spider

Mary Bowerman | USA TODAY Network

Australian police responded to what they believed was a domestic violence incident only to find the commotion was caused by a man trying to kill a "big" spider.

Police responded to numerous calls from neighbors that reported hearing a woman “screaming hysterically” and a man threatening her.

When police arrived at the home in Sydney around 2 a.m., the man was “out of breath and rather flushed,” according to an account of the incident posted on the Harbourside Local police force Facebook page on Nov. 21.

Police asked the man what he had done to the screaming woman, and the man responded that he lived alone. The hilarious conversation between the man and police is recounted below:

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

Man: “It was a spider.”

Police “Sorry??”

Man: “It was a spider, a really big one!!

Police :”What about the women screaming?”

Man: “Yeah sorry that was me, I really really hate spiders.”

Police said it turned out the male was chasing a “rather large spider around the unit with a can.” “After a very long pause some laughter and a quick look in the unit to make sure there was no injured party (apart from the spider) we left," police wrote on the post.

Police Inspector Dean Lindley posted the story on Facebook with several other outlandish crimes that occurred in the area, Huffington Post reported.

“If you try and make it a bit humorous, more people will read it. If you attach funny stuff to serious stuff, they’re more likely to engage," Lindley told Huffington Post Australia.

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