Why a whole neighbourhood hid from a croissant

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Before we dive into this story about a human and a croissant, we want to say that we’re not trying to be unkind. We recognise that any human, at any time, has the potential to misidentify a pastry. We’re glad this event happened, because it made us laugh – but we’re laughing with the person who was scared of the pastry, not at them. 

Now that we’ve made that clear…

In 2021, someone looked out of their window in Poland and saw something in a lilac tree. Concerned that it might be a dangerous iguana, she waited inside for it to leave – but it didn’t leave. It stayed in that tree for a number of days, while she sheltered in the house; and her neighbours, too, stayed inside their houses and kept their windows shut. 

Eventually, she called the Krakow Society for the Protection of Animals (KSPA) to explain what she’d seen. 

What she told the animal protection services…

The KSPA shared a Facebook post, detailing the conversation they’d had about the menacing tree-dweller. 

“Come and get it!” the woman said, in a desperate voice. 

“But who, ma’am?” asked the animal inspector. 

“That creature? He has been sitting in a tree across from the block for two days! People don't open windows because they're afraid that it's going to enter their house!” 

The inspector then asked if it might be a sick bird of prey, and the caller said no, it definitely wasn’t a bird. The inspector asked her to describe what it looked like, and she said “it’s brown, sitting in a tree.” 

“Perhaps an iguana,” she said. 

Animal handlers were promptly dispatched

They arrived at the scene ready to handle a potentially challenging situation – they doubted it would be an iguana, but perhaps an exotic pet had escaped from its enclosure nearby, they thought. But they couldn’t find the dangerous animal immediately. 

Then they saw it: 

“The brown creature sits on a lilac branch,” the inspector wrote in that Facebook post, “the creature sits and does not move. His brown skin glows in the sun, although some blurrings can be seen somewhere. Let’s take a closer look – the poor thing has no legs or a head.” 

“We already know that we are not able to help the creature.” 

“Because it’s hard to help something that has been baked before, at least not in the sunlight. It’s hard to help something that almost knocks us off our feet…in an attack of laughter.” 

It was an oversized croissant. 

Thrown from a window to cause havoc in the neighbourhood 

The croissant was, the inspectors concluded, probably thrown from a window as food for the birds. But when it got stuck in the lilac tree it cast a threatening shadow over the community. 

Thankfully, no one was hurt. 

Tell us your scariest food experiences

Have you ever been terrified by a toffee, worried by a watermelon, or overwhelmed by an orange? We want to know about your scariest food experiences.

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