Do you know what's lurking down your toilet sewer pipes, ready to emerge at any moment?

A Seaview man was caught in quite a predicament when he found that a big crab had made itself at home in his loo, raising threatening pincers, defending its new territory.

Chris Tyrrell went into his toilet on Saturday morning to pour toilet cleaner down the bowl, only to find he had doused a crab with the solution.

"I'm so glad I didn't sit on the loo, or I would've got my bum nipped with those huge claws," said Tyrrell.

It seems both man and crab were afraid of each other, with Tyrrell only venturing near the crab armed with a hanger.

He had first spotted the crab on Wednesday morning, but had given the crab such a fright it had darted back down the toilet pipe, leaving Tyrrell doubting whether he'd really seen it.

But yesterday morning, there, comfortably floating at the bottom of his loo, was the crab, dazed from the cleaning agent, but still very much alive.

Eventually it was either the crab or Tyrrell that had to heed the call of nature.

"I took him out with the coat hanger and a big silver spoon from the kitchen. I put him in an ice-cream container. He fought back fiercely and was very lively.

He wasn't too pleased about being moved. I let him go at the bottom of the garden. There's a swamp nearby, so there'll be plenty of water. He's in perfect condition," said Tyrrell.

Thus ended the Toilet War.

It's not the first time Tyrrell has come face to face with the wild since moving into his Seaview home two years ago.

His first hair-raising experience was with a very hairy spider in his kitchen.

"It was huge and it came after me - I had to jump on to my kitchen sink to keep away from it," said Tyrrell.

The crab is thought to be a river crab that had found its way into the sewer system through a small stream.

• This article was originally published on page 5 of Tribune on August 28, 2005
  

Article by: Rebecca Naidoo - www.iol.co.za