A fisherman in Australia's far north spent his 45th birthday sharing a caravan park cabin with a 2-metre crocodile after a local official refused to let it lodge in his house, news reports said.
Ashley Sala told the Cairns Post that he kept to the top bunk while the saltwater crocodile, its jaws safely taped shut, had the run of the ground floor.
He had been fishing in a local creek when the creature became tangled in his line, he said.
Sala tried to deliver the reptile to local councillor Mark Nolan in Innisfail, northern Queensland, on Tuesday in protest against the council's tardy response to complaints that crocodiles plagued local fishing spots.
"Kids go fishing in that creek and they could easily have been taken by that croc," he said.
Nolan, who told him to take it home, delivered on his promise to have wildlife officers pick it up at the caravan park the next morning.
"I didn't really know what to do so I thought I'd get it untangled at home and take it to the mayor and tell him how fed up I am with getting stalked by crocs and crocs eating my fishing rods," Sala said.
"I was a bit hyped up and shouldn't have been there trying to wake him up, but I was sick of going fishing and having this problem with crocodiles."
Crocodiles are a protected species in Australia. Those found too close to neighbourhoods are usually caught and transferred to the wild by rangers.
Innisfail is 88 kilometres south of the Queensland town of Cairns.
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