Man fights kangaroo -- and wins
Tuesday March 10 2009
An Australian householder was forced into a bare-handed wrestling match with a kangaroo after it broke into his family home near Canberra.
Beat Ettlin tackled the animal as it rampaged through his house in the middle of the night.
The family first realised something was wrong when their dog Vronsky started barking. Moments later, the intruder smashed through the bedroom window. Mr Ettlin thought at first that his home, on the outskirts of the city, was being robbed.
Shadowy
But after the shadowy figure began repeatedly bouncing up and down on his bed, he realised it was a large, agitated kangaroo.
The animal had cut itself when crashing through the window late on Sunday night and was frantically trying to escape.
"My initial thought when I was half awake was, 'it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window'," Mr Ettlin (42) said. "It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."
Mr Ettlin, who was wearing only his underpants, grappled with the terrified kangaroo. He jumped on the marsupial from behind and pinned it to the floor. Despite feeling "vulnerable", he secured the kangaroo in a headlock and wrestled the bleeding animal out the front door. It hopped away into bushland.
During the initial commotion, Mr Ettlin, his wife and nine-year-old daughter Beatrix, cowered beneath the bedsheets. The kangaroo bounded into the bedroom of his 10-year-old son Leighton and the boy screamed: "There's a roo in my room".
Mr Ettlin said: "The safety of my children was my priority.
"I didn't know what would happen if it got into my son's bed. My first thought was 'get it out of here'." The 6ft kangaroo left claw gouges in the wooden frame of the master bed and a trail of blood in the house.
Mr Ettlin, who had scratch marks on his leg and buttocks, said he was "lucky" not to have been more seriously injured. His wife Verity said he was a hero for saving the family. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- BONNIE MALKIN
