Iguana foils robbery at Indiana pet spa

An Indiana sheriff is thanking an iguana for taking a bite out of crime.

Warwick County Sheriff Brett Kruse said someone broke into the Groomingdale's Pet Spa in Newburgh on Tuesday night and attempted to steal the owner's pet iguana, Princess Ursula, WFIE reported.

Apparently, the iguana had other ideas. “The Iguana took offense to leaving his home and inflicted what is probably a pretty nasty bite,” Kruse wrote in a Facebook post.

Angie Stanley, the owner of Groomingdale’s, told WFIE that the would-burglar broke into her shop through a window that was accidentally left unlocked, but that nothing was taken. However, she did say said there was blood in Princess Ursula’s cage and bloody human footprints on the floor.

"I am not happy that someone broke in my shop at all, but I do have some concern for that person, because if they don't go to the doctor or the hospital, I don't know if it was bad enough to need stitches, but at the very least they need antibiotics because iguana bites are really bad and it will get really superinfected," Stanley told WFIE.

In his Facebook post, Kruse had some fun, writing that if residents knew “of anyone that has an unexplained bite injury that looks like it could have been inflicted by a pet lizard, please call the Sheriff's Office and let us know. We want to make sure they get proper medical treatment.”

Cox Media Group