Unwanted visitors in your home can leave behind spider webs..

I had just stepped out of my boots and hung my coat on the rack when I noticed the strange man hunched over my countertop. The man growled at me and bared his teeth.

“Who are you?” I snapped. “What are you doing in my home?”

The man made some hissing and gurgling sounds at me and then dropped into a squat.

“Please get out of my home. Now!”

“FUCK!” the man shrieked at me, clawing the air.

I slipped on some shoes and backed slowly out my own door. Once I was out of his sight I whipped out my phone and dialled 9-1-1.

“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

I kept my voice low. “There’s an intruder in my house.”

“Alright ma’am, can you give me the address so we can send a squad car over to your location?”

“225 West Broad Street.”

“Alright ma’am, the police are on their way. Just remain on the line with me and try to stay calm, okay?”

“Okay.”

“What’s your name, ma’am?”

“My name’s—”

Suddenly the strange man leapt out onto the porch and landed five feet from me. “OGG-BLA-BLA-BLA!” he screamed at me, causing me to drop my phone. Then he galloped away, bumping into the mailbox on his way out to the street and shouting up a stream of guttural gibberish laced with various obscenities. I watched, still frozen in shock, as he bounded down the avenue. The path his body traced sort of glinted uneasily in the setting sun.

I approached my doorway again when I noticed it. Everywhere he passed he left a web of silky strands. An irregular patchwork of devil’s gossamer was now anchored to the mailbox in the spot where he bumped into it. The webbing was six feet in height and extended into the house, all the way across the living room onto the countertop in the kitchen, at the very spot he was hunched over. Distributed among the web were various species of spiders.

Five minutes later a police car rounded the corner and rolled up to my driveway.