Enemy Action

In the classic James Bond movie Goldfinger, the villain warns Our Hero that "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it's enemy action."

Well, in the unending war of man vs. beast, the armadillos are perilously close to moving into 'enemy action' territory.

A small Texas town ... 3:00 a.m. ... a man with a gun ... an armadillo.

What could go wrong?

A Texas man was wounded after he fired a gun at an armadillo in his yard and the bullet ricocheted back to hit him in his face, the county sheriff said Friday.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe said the man, who was not identified, went outside his home in Marietta, Texas, at around 3 a.m. local time Thursday morning. He spotted the armadillo on his property and opened fire.

"...He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo," Rowe said.

The animal's hard shell deflected at least one of three bullets, which then struck the man's jaw, he said.

The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where his jaw was wired shut, according to Rowe.

The status of the animal is unknown.

"We didn't find the armadillo," the sheriff said.

If that story sounds familiar it's because only a few short months ago this occurred.

A Georgia man wounded his 74-year-old mother-in-law in April after his 9mm bullet careened off an armadillo, hit a fence, went through the back door of mom's mobile home and penetrated the recliner she was sitting in. The bullet struck her in the back.

She suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the armadillo went to heaven. No word if the man's headed to divorce court.

That's two times those sneaky little 'dillos have jiu-jitsued armed humans. The next time is a declaration of war.

Side note: I am somewhat surprised that either a .38 or a 9mm couldn't penetrate a dillo shell. I've dispatched a few with both a .22LR and a 12-gauge loaded with #6 shot. However, I'm getting soft in my old age. I've switched to live-trapping them instead of killing them. This despite the fact that we're suffering through a dillo infestation right now. The little buggers are rooting around searching for grubs, and in the process just destroying our yard. But, unlike politicians and extremists, they're not being evil or malicious. They're just doing what armadillos do...

Our yard after a visit from those cute little armadillos.