Here's a classic Urban Legend
from the US...
Gecko! Gecko!
"In downtown New York, at a somewhat trashy apartment, there lived
a man named Howard. He was a young man, in his mid-twenties, and
had a terrible fear of cockroaches. Well if you've been to New
York, and maybe live or stayed in a rundown hotel, you know how
many cockroaches there are. Too many to count!
Howie had just come home from work and was looking for a bit of
relaxation. All he wanted to do was get a bowl of ice cream, sit
down and read the newspaper. He started raiding the messy cabinets
and sink to look for a bowl and a spoon. He found the bowl, got out
the ice cream and opened a drawer to get the spoon when, Surprise!!
Out jumps a big juicy cockroach. After jumping twenty feet in the
air and grabbing a spoon out of the drawer, he sat down to calm
himself. "God forsaken roaches!" he yelled, while slowing his
heartbeat, just as another cockroach crawled between his feet. "
There's got to be something I can do to get rid of them." Just
then, as he was getting his ice cream and reading ads in the paper,
one specific ad caught his eye. "Got Roaches? We have a solution!
Come down to Sam's Pet Club today and get yourself the natural
predator of the roaches, a Gecko!"
"What in the world?" Howard thought. He read on: "That's right! A
gecko! Follow the directions below to get your very own live
cockroach eliminator! Then ask our friendly staff how to care for
and what to do to get rid of your cockroaches." "Ya right. That
gecko will probably eat me while I sleep." he said as yet another
roach scuttled across the floor. He felt sick. He thought it was
worth a try, so the very next day he followed the directions on the
ad to the pet store.
He asked about the geckos and the staff told him what to do with a
gecko and how much they were and, soon enough, he was driving home
with his very own gecko. "Great," he thought "yet another little
critter that is going to be loitering around in my house."
He got home and did just as the woman at the store told him to do,
and let the gecko go. He saw the gecko run under the refrigerator
after the nearest cockroach it saw. "Well, at least he is doing his
job." he said after he heard the loud "GECKO, GECKO," sound that
geckos make when they swallow.
Days went by, and Howard saw fewer and fewer roaches. He didn't
like the gecko running around his house all the time, but what's
one gecko to a thousand roaches? He shrugged it off, and tried to
suck it up. One thing he did do, however, was close the door before
he went to bed. But no matter what he did, somehow the lizard
always got into his room.
One day after work, he was getting some dinner when he saw the
gecko chase one of the last cockroaches on the house under the
refrigerator. He saw the cockroach scurry under it with the gecko
far behind struggling to go under. That's when Harold realized. It
was getting bigger. That night he did everything he could to keep
the Gecko out of his room. He fell into a deep sleep.
All the police found the next morning was a small stain on the bed
that looked like blood. They searched everywhere in the house for
Harold after a worried neighbor herd a slight scream and a haunting
"GECKO, GECKO," that morning, but no one could find anything. No
Harold, No Gecko, No cockroaches, nothing. They left that house
confused and wondering, never to see Harold again. The only place
they didn't check was under the bed, where the gecko was - big as
ever, and full at last."