A Darwin dad armed himself with his guitar to fend off a crocodile that walked into his family’s lounge room.
The plump, smooth-scaled saltie was a suspected escapee from the nearby Darwin Crocodile Farm.
The croc wandered into the Bees Creek Road home in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Neighbours say 15 crocodiles suspected of escaping from the Darwin Crocodile Farm had turned up on their properties over the past five years.
Micko Srbinovska, 42, was woken by his wife Jo Dodd who found the 1.7m saltie in the lounge room just 3m from their bedroom door about 5.30 on Saturday morning.
“Our dog was outside the bedroom door barking loudly,” said Ms Dodd, 42.
“I opened the sliding door and saw the crocodile right outside the door.
“It is pretty full-on when there is a crocodile in your lounge room — I nearly died.”
Mr Srbinovska pulled on some trousers, grabbed the closest item of defence – his guitar – and edged out of the bedroom across the lounge room towards the phone.
He then called the Crocodile Management Unit.
Female crocodile catcher Dani Best showed up and wrestled the crocodile into submission.
Ms Dodd said the crocodile made eerie sounds during the struggle with Ms Best.
“It was prehistoric. The hissing sounded like a vampire. Then it went into its death rolls – the power of this thing was just phenomenal,” Ms Dodd said.
Ms Dodd described Ms Best as “awesome.”
“She just jumped on top of it, taped up its snout, back and front legs.”
After the crocodile was secured they noticed some of the ridges on the crocodile’s back – called scoots – had been cut off.
Farmed crocodiles have certain scoots cut off as part of a numbering system to identify them.
Ms Best told the NT News the crocodile was taken back to its farm straight away.
Ms Dodd, who moved to Bees Creek from Ludmilla in September, said croc escapees were an ongoing joke in the area.
by Mike Hansom
