A man has been left red-faced after his attempt to kill a spider was mistaken for a domestic violence incident, prompting an extensive response from police.
Officers from North Sydney police force rushed to an apartment at around 2am on Sunday, when residents in the northern suburb of Wollstonecraft claimed to hear a man yelling, “I’m going to kill you, you’re dead. Die! Die!”, accompanied by a woman’s screams and the sound of furniture being tossed around.
A man, “out of breath and rather flushed”, answered the door and the following conversation ensued:
Police: “Where’s your wife?”
Man: “Umm, I don’t have one.”
Police: “Where’s your girlfriend?”
Man: "Umm, I don’t have one.”
Police: “We had a report of a domestic and a woman screaming, where is she?”
Man: “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 there was furniture getting thrown around.”
At this point the officers, who documented the exchange on Facebook, said the man became “very sheepish.”
Police: “Come on mate, what have you done to her?”
Man: “It was a spider.”
Police: “Sorry?”
Man: “It was a spider, a really big one!"
Police: “What about the woman screaming?”
Man: “Yeah sorry that was me. I really, really hate spiders.”
Officers inspected the property to find the chaos had been caused by the man chasing a “rather large spider” with a can of pesticide.
Nobody was injured in the incident, police confirmed, “apart from the spider.”
