The horror of the morning after
PATHUM THANI: Some people may be familiar with the surprise of waking up on the morning of New Year’s Day to find an unexpected creature lying beside them in bed. Few, however, take the trouble to report such incidents to the police. Fewer still are the cases where police haul the offending bedmate off to jail. Pol Lt Col Sarawut Netriyanon, Superintendent at Tambon Suan Prik Thai Police Station, was as surprised as anyone on January 1 when he was called to a rented room by 23 year-old Thip Nethip, who said that there was a monstrous creature asleep on his bed. Investigations swiftly established that the “monster” was a bright-green iguana, 50 centimeters long and weighing in at a meaty five kilograms. Not knowing what to do with the reptile, Col Sarawut took it back to the station. Fearful that the vegetarian lizard might harm local children – iguanas have long, sharp talons – officers there locked up the creature in a prison cell while they waited for wildlife officials to come and collect it.
