The small creature waddling across the floor of a fruit shop on Queensland's Sunshine Coast was first thought to be a cat, but it turned out to be a prickly customer.
It was an echidna and the owner of Fenwick's Fruit Emporium, Alan Fenwick, still does not know how or when it walked inside his shop.
"I was packing the shelves of the apples when it wandered out from the back of the shop," Mr Fenwick said.
"At first I thought it was a cat, then I realised it was an echidna."
Mr Fenwick tried to catch the spiny anteater, but it "double backed and went under the fridge".
And that's where it became firmly wedged.
"We took off the bottom of the fridge to reach under, but I couldn't get it out, it was very wedged in there," Mr Fenwick said.
"They stick their spines out to protect themselves so you can't grab onto anything."
Australia Zoo to the rescue
Mr Fenwick decided to call the Australia Zoo Wildlife Rescue who said they would send a team to help with the extraction.
He never expected a celebrity would turn up to save the day.
"As a bit of a joke, we said imagine if Robert or Bindi came up," Mr Fenwick said.
Half an hour later and Robert and a film crew turned up.
But even Robert and the team from Australia Zoo could not get the echidna out of its hiding spot.
"They were there for about three hours. It was very entertaining for customers who were coming in, but it was really stuck under there," Mr Fenwick said.
Plan B at night
That's when they came up with a plan B: They would return at night when all the lights were off.
"We came back at 8pm and turned off every light in the store," Mr Fenwick said.
"Then we shone a light through the front of the store and we saw it walking around.
"We raced in and Robert grabbed it."
After a brief examination, it was determined the echidna was not damaged by its ordeal and it was released in a nearby nature strip.
While Australia Zoo has declined to comment on the rescue, Mr Fenwick said it was not only the echidna that the youngest member of the Irwin family was enthused about.
"When we were in the nature strip, he saw a possum and was pretty excited about that too," he said.
Difficult to budge
Queensland Museum Collection Manager Mammals and Birds, Heather Janetzki, said it was very rare for an echidna to wander into a shop.
She suspected it had been looking for a "safe haven".
"You usually find them trying to jam themselves under a log or the hollow base of a tree," she said.
"Maybe there was a food supply, or it was a coolish morning and it was trying to find somewhere to shelter."
Ms Janetzki said removing the echidna would have been difficult as they were known to "lift their body up and wedge their spines into something".
"A good way of collecting them, if you see one hit on the road, is have a plastic tub and a towel in the back of the car. You can throw the towel over the animal and bundle it up from there."
Did you know?:
- Echidnas have built in ear muffs. Echidnas have a cover that folds up over their ears so they don't get ants crawling in them.
- They are one of the few mammals that lay eggs.
- They are mostly solitary creatures and wander around alone.
- When they are due to mate they get a "lot of suitors" and the female can have a "trail of males following behind her".
- The male has a four-headed penis.
