'Ninja' kangaroo terrorises family in bed
* March 10, 2009
Not a bird, or a plane, but a kangaroo has crashed through the bedroom window of a Canberra family's home before terrorising its unsuspecting occupants.
The family, from the suburb of Garran in Canberra's south, were awoken in the early hours of Sunday morning when their pet dog began barking from the garden.
Moments later, a kangaroo burst through a three-metre high window of the house's master bedroom and onto the bed where Beat Ettlin, his partner Verity Beman and their nine-year-old daughter Beatrix lay.
"My initial thought when I was half awake was: it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window," Mr Ettlin told The Associated Press.
"It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in."
While the family took refuge under the blankets, the injured animal proceeded to jump on top of them, gouging holes in the furniture and smearing blood all over the walls.
The next thing Mr Ettlin heard was his 10-year-old son Leighton screaming from his bed: "There's a 'roo in my room!'"
"I thought, this can be really dangerous for the whole family now," the 42-year-old said.
A chef, originally from the Swiss city of Stans, Mr Ettlin followed the thrashing and bleeding two metre tall marsupial and wrestled it into a headlock before dragging it down the hallway and out the front door.
Left wearing just his shredded underpants and with scratch marks on his leg and buttocks, Mr Ettlin described himself as "lucky".
"I had just my Bonds undies on. I felt vulnerable," he said.
As quickly as it had come, the kangaroo vanished into a nearby reserve and the family reported the intrusion to police and wildlife authorities.
Ms Beman praised her husband's courage and said she didn't know many men who would go head-to-head with a kangaroo.
"I think he's a hero, a hero in Bonds undies," she said.
