Waitress pulls goanna from restaurant
At first she thought it was a dog which had wondered into the crowded NSW south coast restaurant.
But when the creature went on to the restaurant floor at Mimosa Winery, French waitress Samia Lila decided to drag it out by the tail.
That’s when she realised it was a goanna. And a big one at that.
The lizard was 180cm long and had decided to perch itself under one of the tables which got people screaming.
Lila, 25, at first tried to block it with a chair. But diners were getting increasingly agitated so with all the screaming going on, she decided to take things in hand, literally.
“I was just like a kid; I thought ‘I want to do it, I want to do it, I know it’s bad, but it was getting close to customers’,” Ms Lila told the Illawarra Mercury.
“I wasn’t scared, I like reptiles so was a bit excited.”
Ms Lila has been on a working holiday in Australia since November. It was the second goanna she had seen. The week before, she had scared one away from the winery’s vines.
The incident has made her an instant celebrity.
The footage of the incident was posted on Facebook with the tag: Unwelcome visitor in the restaurant today was no match for French waitress Samia ( Goanna Girl ) !!
It has been viewed nearly 200,000 times and shared over 330 times since it was posted on Saturday.
Lila’s boss Glenn Butson says she's terrified of spiders. But she showed she has no problems with dealing with a big goanna.
Lila, who comes from Normandy said she did not expect the video to go viral at all. And now she has to live with her name “Goanna Girl” for the rest of the time she is in Australia.
She will be working at Mimosa Winery, no doubt protecting it from goannas – under her Working Holiday Visa until June or July before she heads off on her trip.
by Leon Gettler, February 21st 2017
