Oct. 5 (UPI) — Animal rescuers in California were called out to assist a tarantula spotted stranded on the roof of a home, but arrived to find the supposed spider was an old Halloween decoration.
The Peninsula Humane Society said an animal control officer was dispatched to a San Mateo neighborhood to check on the tarantula. The officer received permission from the homeowners to attempt a rescue and climbed up to the roof with a plastic enclosure to capture the arachnid.
The humane society said in a Facebook post that the officer quickly discovered “it was actually a Halloween decoration, not a pet Tarantula.”
“She said it looked like it had been up there for a while,” Buffy Tarbox, the Peninsula Humane Society’s communications manager, told SFGate. “I guess if you don’t like spiders, that’s the better outcome.”
The officer brought the plastic tarantula down from the roof to show the homeowners and the caller who originally spotted the faux-spider.
“The homeowners didn’t know the decoration was there,” Tarbox said. “Everyone thought it was real.”
Tarbox said the officer brought the plastic spider back to the humane society’s office in Burlingame.
“It became this funny thing where they were placing it on various people’s desks,” Tarbox said. “That joke wore a little thin. It was put into the trash.”