Over 50 Creepy Crawly Tarantulas Rescued From Maine Motel

Let me just start by saying this: Holy Freakin Nope!

Imagine, for a moment, that you're a landlord (in this case you manage a motel) and you try to reach out to one of your tenants to collect a payment, only to find that it's not just one person living in the space being rented, but actually upwards of 50 different beings, with a combined leg count of 424, and most of whom live in tiny plastic cages!

Norway, Maine Inn Town Motel manager, Andrew Coombs, doesn't have to imagine such a scenario--because he actually lived it!

According to a recent article by the Sun Journal, Coombs says he was given a false phone number and address by a guy named Sean Schoomaker who had been staying in the motel for about 2 weeks. When Coombs went to check in on Schoomaker, he found "A total of 53 hairy spiders in plastic cases were arranged throughout the room on stands and tables."

The article states that Coombs "promptly" called the police (which is better than the blow-torch option a lot of other folks would have opted for!) Then the police called the Animal Control Officer, who then passed the baton to the Maine Warden's Service, in what had to have been the most amusing game of "arachnid hot-potato phone-tag" that's ever gone down in in history!

Ultimately, the dozens of spiders were sent to Lewiston to be identified and dealt with at "Drew Desjardins’ facility — Mr. Drew and His Animals Too — ".

Schoomaker is believed to traveled to another town to seek an alternate place to live, although Coombs doubts there is anyone who would knowingly rent to him at this point.

“I can’t imagine he’s going to find anyone to let him check in with those tarantulas.”

According to the article, it is apparently illegal to possess all but three kinds of tarantulas. If you have any other type outside of the 3 legal spiders, there's a whole lot of paperwork and permits that go with them. There's no word yet on whether Schoomaker had any of the necessary documents to own all those leggy lovelies.

Well played, 2020.  Let's just hope they got them all!