Live lizards found in woman’s handbag

[faze]

Live lizards found in woman’s handbag
Herald Reporter
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id...ate=2004-10-18
IN bizarre case of the truth being stranger than fiction, two lizards were found in the handbag of a Kambuzuma woman who claimed they were brought from South Africa by her husband who wanted to use them "to spin money" in Zimbabwe.

Hundreds of residents on Friday gathered at Kamb-uzuma 5 Shopping Centre where a self-styled prophet who had been talking to the woman insisted that she open her bag so that he would help her.

The woman, who had a child strapped on her back, shot back that she had personal belongings in the bag and that the prophet had no business intruding into her privacy.

The prophet said the creatures in the woman’s bag could cause an accident if she travelled with them on the bus.

A crowd then gathered thinking the two were involved in a domestic dispute. But on discovering what the two were arguing about, they pressed the woman to open the bag.

The woman, who was now in tears, eventually relented to public pressure, but saying that she would only open the bag on condition that the prophet would help her.

She took out a smaller bag, which was inside her handbag, and — to the utter shock and amazement of the gathering — two monitor lizards crawled out.

"We were shocked, to say the least," said a Mrs Yeshiva, who was at a nearby market said.

A local businessman then bought four litres of paraffin and diesel with which he attempted to burn the creatures, but they crawled out of the fire — to the further disbelief of the crowd.

About 30 minutes later, the prophet, who comes from Mutare but was visiting his brother, asked for some water and salt and began praying.

He later sprinkled the water onto the lizards following which they died.

The woman, who was visibly shaken by the event, said the lizards were young and small when they were brought from South Africa.

"My husband said we would be rich if we kept feeding them with mealie-meal," she said.

But the lizards, she said, were becoming a nuisance as they grew bigger.

"I could not leave them alone at home because they would always try to crawl out of the house. So I carry them around in my bag," she said.

The woman said they lived a relatively good life with the money sent to her from South Africa by her husband, but said she personally did not believe the lizards were bringing in any riches.