ELKHART, Ind. – It’s something no one wants to come across: a six-inch spider.
An employee at Godfrey Marine encountered it while building a boat at work. Jacob Collins, who shared photos of the spider on Facebook, didn’t know what to think at first.
He later found out it was a fishing spider—something the Indiana Department of Natural Resources said is relatively harmless despite its terrifying look. The spider’s three-inch leg span allows it to walk on water. It’s often mistaken for a wolf spider, one of the most common large spiders found in Indiana.
Collins and his co-workers caught the fishing spider and snapped a few photos of the impressive specimen. They then released it back into the wild.
“They found this giant beast on a boat at work today,” Collins wrote in his post. “Beware all Elkhart [County] residents. They are out there and they are real.”
As of Thursday morning, his Facebook post about the spider had more than 8,100 shares and hundreds of comments.
