Update: Turns out the entire thing was a Brooklyn man’s idea of a joke.
Help, my giant poisonous spider is missing — and she’s pregnant!
A hairy Mexican red rump tarantula named Penelope is on the loose in Park Slope, and her owner is frantically trying to find her before she pops out her tiny, creepy spawn.
“I know she looks crazy scary but she’s mostly harmless,” the owner says on a missing-pet sign, which includes a photo, posted in South Slope.
“She’s pregnant, so I’m hoping to find her before she has her babies. She’s mostly active at night and she tends to hide in dark corners,” it notes.
“She shouldn’t bite but sometimes she jumps,” it adds.
Red rump tarantulas are native to Mexico and have venomous fangs that are deadly to their prey. They can grow to 5 inches long.
The sign has spooked neighbors who fear an “Arachnophobia”-style outbreak in brownstone Brooklyn, assuming it’s not some elaborate hoax.
“Someone find it before we end up with a tarantula infestation in Brooklyn,” one commenter posted on Reddit under a photo of the spider.
Other folks cared more about the critter’s safety.
“Hope they find [her] before someone kills her!” another commenter posted.
The pet owner asks whoever finds her to put her in a “tupperware bowl” with holes, so she can breathe, then call a phone number listed on the sign.