Yahoo News Man who sparked full police alert over threat to kill spider admits he may have been a bit dramatic
A father whose panicked screams at a spider in his house sparked a three-car police raid has admitted that he may have been a little ‘over the top’.
Rhys Howard screamed so loudly when he spotted an arachnid scuttling round his home in Edgewater, Australia, that his neighbours thought someone was being murdered.
Picking up a nappy to kill the bug, Mr Howard could be heard yelling ‘why won’t you die!’
“Berry [his daughter] was screaming in the play room and I was like, ‘Berry, stay back’!” Mr Howard recalled to 7News in Australia, and said the whole ordeal has become “embarrassing”.
His screams led to police despatching three units his home due to the ‘severity of the call’.
Mr Rhys, 30, told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I was out in the backyard with my daughter and my partner Kara answered the door to the police. They seemed really concerned.
‘They said they had recorded reports of a toddler crying and someone yelling ‘why don’t you die’.
‘Kara laughed and said that that was my partner Rhys, he was killing a spider.’
Fortunately the police saw the funny side and made sure he had squashed the spider.
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He added: ‘I may have overreacted, I’m a pretty dramatic person at the best of times.’
“We’re thinking about starting the SSD, The Special Spider Division,” one police officer joked to 7News.
Mr Howard said he had no idea which neighbours called the police but wants to thank them for calling the police.
He said: ‘It is nice to live in a suburb with friendly neighbours looking out for my family.’
