Squirrels are usually seen as harmless. It’s hard to think if a tiny fluffy creature like a squirrel can even harm anybody but it’s not the case for ‘Stripe’. In two days, the squirrel Stripe named after the antagonist from the movie Gremlins has attacked and left 18 people injured in Buckley town in Flintshire, northeastern Wales.
The story of this little rodent began heartily back in summer when Corrine Reynolds, a 65-year-old animal-loving woman started feeding this grey squirrel. Stripe used to make regular trips to her house. At that time, Corrine had no idea about Stripe’s viciousness until one day he bit her hand. Soon after this incident, she wrote on a local social media page what had happened to her.
Surprisingly, she was not the only one who had been bitten by this squirrel. She realized that Stripe had attacked almost 18 people as well as a bunch of animals in 2 days. According to her, the ferocious squirrel was attacking people who were just taking their recycling bags to the bin or minding their own business.
One of Stripe’s victims, 34-year-old Scott Felton was having a cigarette outside his house when the vicious squirrel instantly jumped on his arm and bit him. Fearing any infection, Scott immediately rushed to the hospital for a tetanus jab. A pretty much similar encounter happened with 42-year-old Sherre Robinson, bitten on his finger. Stripe suddenly jumped on him from behind at the time when he was collecting his recycling bags.
As per Sheree, around four to five people in his neighborhood had been ambushed by this bloodthirsty squirrel. Although humans were not Stripe’s only victims. A town resident said that he also attacked her two Bengal cats. She admitted that she didn’t go out even though her cats are generally fearless.
Stripe was pouncing on people and leaving them injured without any reason. His unusual behavior was bothering Corrine so she came up with the idea to use a humane trap to catch the little yet fatal rodent. Shortly, the people from the RSPCA arrived and transferred Stripe from the cage to Corrine’s bathroom after he was caught. However, the RSPCA had no choice but to put Stripe to sleep because of the new 2019 rule which says it is illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild. Corrine feels sad for the little one but it was the only way. People in Buckley are free from the Stripe’s terror.