Animal welfare officers in Poland were recently alerted to a potentially serious situation when they received a report of a mysterious animal that had been scaring locals in the city of Krakow.
According to the Krakow Animal Welfare Society, a woman called the organisation’s hotline on Friday to report that an unidentified “creature” had been sitting in a nearby tree for two days.
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“Come and pick him up,” the society quoted the woman as saying in a recent Facebook post. “He’s been sitting in a tree across the block for two days! People don’t open windows because they’re afraid it’s going to enter their house!”
When the responder asked the woman what the animal was, and whether it could be a bird of prey, she indicated that she thought it could be an iguana.
Despite their reservations that this was a prank, animal welfare officers arrived at the scene – if it was a pet iguana who had been abandoned by its owners, they were concerned about its welfare in the cold temperatures.
However, when they arrived, it wasn’t an iguana, or a bird – or any animal, in fact – that had been terrorising locals. It was just a croissant. In a tree.
A spokesperson for the Krakow Animal Welfare Society told VICE World News that it was undoubtedly the strangest callout their officers had responded to.
“Our two inspectors were very surprised and amused, it was hard not to be,” the spokesperson said over email. “They didn’t expect an iguana but they weren’t prepared for what they saw of course.”