FOREST GROVE, OR (KPTV) -
A caller to 911 prefaced what she was about to ask with a simple statement.
"I just kind of have a ridiculous question."
A teenage girl in Forest Grove called 911 not for an emergency, but instead for a spider. Police said it happened during the night of Aug. 16.
"I'm home alone and there is a giant spider on the back of my couch, and I'm talking giant. I've never seen a spider this big and I have no idea what to do," she told the slightly perplexed dispatcher, according to 911 records.
The girl estimated the spider was the size of a baseball, similar to a tarantula. She said spiders don't typically scare her, but a family member was recently bit by one and had to go to the hospital.
Plus, she said, this was a "massive freaking creature."
"I don't know if you guys have anything I can do, or if I just sit here and stare at it and wait for someone to get home to kill it," she told the dispatcher.
After the dispatcher pondered how to handle the situation, he agreed to have an officer contact her.
"Is that ridiculous?" she asked.
An officer did respond to the scene and estimated the spider was about 2 inches in diameter. Modern police equipment was not necessary to handle the eight-legged perp in this case.
The officer disposed of the spider with an old-fashioned rolled up newspaper, police said.
Forest Grove police said it's not normal for them to respond to a call about an arachnid, but they decided to help the young lady out in this instance.
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