Ben Lilly can now tell his future grandchildren that he was face to face with a leopard in the middle of the UK and can show them the pictures to “prove it.” It won’t be a true story, but they don’t have to know that.
Ben was driving home like any other ordinary day. It was a cold Saturday morning in Halifax, West Yorkshire (England) and he was still half asleep while driving. But something he saw on the road woke him up immediately.
The man was passing a curve when he saw a skin figure lying on the street. He was about to go on his way, but his curiosity was stronger than his commitments and he decided to turn around.
From the corner of his eye, it looked like a leopard had been run over and might have needed help. Now, there are no wild leopards in England, but the excitement and adrenaline of the possibility that there was clouded the man’s good judgment, who had already stopped and got out of the vehicle to see if his theory was true.
«My heart was beating with a special kind of emotion. I thought ‘is this a big cat?’ It would be incredible to find one,” the man told the LadBible news portal.
“I thought ‘wow’. I’ve heard of big cat sightings and they’ve been reported around the Halifax area before. I turned around as soon as I could and drove back,” he added.
He was prepared for everything. If the animal was dead, he would regret the situation and call the authorities. If he was still alive, he would call a vet and try to help him while staying out of harm’s way. What he was certainly not prepared for was to make a fool out of himself and that was exactly what happened.
What was on the road, what had made him stop and turn back his vehicle that cold Saturday morning, what had him so excited was nothing more than a piece of clothing, a woman’s romper made with leopard animal print.
“I took another look, it seemed real. Then I parked behind him and looked from inside the car. I got out cautiously, because I didn’t want something to rip my face off, but as soon as I looked at it from another angle, I laughed,” he said chuckling.
To be fair, the confusion was understandable. The wild outfit lay on the street in a way that made it look like an actual animal. And as if that were not enough, it even had a tail.
The man felt so ridiculous that he decided to photograph the alleged leopard and share his experience with the “wild cat” on social media.
“Careful! Dead leopard in the road on way to Halifax! Oh no, it’s some tarts coat from last night, can’t believe I turned back for this!” wrote the man on his Facebook.
Ben’s post went viral immediately. Hundreds of people wrote to him, some to tell him that they also thought it was a dead leopard, others to criticize his “joke” about the romper.
Ben can now tell his future grandchildren that he was face to face with a leopard in the middle of the UK and show them the pictures to “prove it.” It won’t be a true story, but they don’t have to know that.