What emergencies warrant summoning the cops over? For one woman in Bueng Kan province, it was a visit from an unwelcome reptile.
Police in the northeasternmost corner of Thailand received a one-of-a-kind distress call over the 191 emergency line from a resident unable to enter her room because a door-hanging gecko was blocking their way.
“The woman renting the room said she was scared because there was a large gecko hanging on the doorway, and it wasn’t going away. So she called us to come get rid of it,” Lt. Sanae Meungtang told Coconuts Bangkok this morning through a few hearty chuckles.
Fast action by Bueng Khong Long district’s finest took care of the gecko problem and returned the reptile to its natural habitat. No lizard or human was harmed in the process.
Lt. Sanae added that it was the first case of its kind that he’d ever encountered.
“Usually we get calls to remove snakes but to remove a gecko, this is a first,” he said.
To the surprise of many not born in the kingdom, many Thais hold a deep and unshakable terror of geckos, who are widely if not quite accurately believed to be vicious, poisonous things waiting for their chance to drop and kill passers-by.
