Rendering of a bat with a sweatband on its head. Images via Shutterstock.

In October, a person in Arlington called the Animal Welfare League’s animal control line to report a bat inside the home. A bat that turned out to be a sweatband.

While it is very easy to laugh at this situation, Alice Burton, chief of animal control in Arlington, tells DCist that reports of this nature happen pretty often.

“People see things and they see it for about a tenth of a second and they go into hysteria and run,” she said. “So they don’t give themselves time to look and see if it’s really a bat or a sweatband. Or a sock. Or a balloon that’s deflated.”

Yes, Burton once responded to a report of a bat that turned out to be a deflated balloon: “I said, ‘Is this it?’ I reached down with my hand and picked it up. And the woman screamed … and was like, ‘YES!’ I said, ‘It’s a balloon.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, that’s right.’ She remembered the balloon popping and never picked it up.”

Burton also said animal control once received a report of a dead cat in the middle of the road that turned out to be a ski hat. Another report of a mangy, emaciated cat in a car turned out to be a stuffed animal. “It does happen quite a bit,” she added.

But Burton says that reports like this aren’t “frustrating.” Besides being a light-hearted part of the day, Burton said, it shows that people in the community really care about animals.