HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - A Hollywood homeowner was shocked to find an iguana in his toilet, and he said he knew exactly what to do after being confronted with the scaly intruder.
Speaking with 7News on Monday, Bruce Bleier said the encounter with the reptile took place during a recent nighttime trip to the bathroom.
“When you lift up the toilet, and you’re getting ready to do what you’re going to do, and you have Godzilla looking back at you, it was quite a surprise,” he said. “I think there must be a dent in the ceiling, because I jumped about 18 feet.”
Bleier, a retired bank executive, has only lived in Hollywood for three years, and this part of Florida living didn’t quite make the welcome brochure.
The homeowner said he used his granddaughter’s portable toilet to weigh down the toilet seat until morning.
“I assumed, ‘OK, it is dead,’ so I poked it a little bit, and it was not dead,” he said.
Bleier said he had seen a previous 7News story concerning another iguana caught in the same spot, also in Hollywood, and he called Harold Rondan from Iguana Lifestyles to do the job.
Bleier said he saw his share of animals in his old neighborhood on New York’s Long Island.
“Raccoons, squirrels — occasionally, in the right place, you might see a rat, even — but nothing like iguanas or lizards or anything like that,” he said.
Now he’s got an addition to his bathroom routine.
“Just make sure, before you sit down, you look,” he said, “because you can be sure I will for the rest of my life.”
Rondan said iguanas tend to go up on roofs and fall through the vents, so in order to prevent what happened to Bleier, purchase some mesh at a hardware store and use it to cover vents.
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