Man shoots armadillo, gets hit in the face instead

A Texas man who shot an armadillo ended up in hospital when the bullet bounced off the animal and hit him in his face.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe said the man, who was not identified, went outside his home at around 3 am on Thursday morning (July 30).

He spotted the armadillo on his property and decided to kill it.

Mr Rowe said: 

"His wife was in the house. He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo."

The animal's hard shell deflected at least one of three bullets, which then struck the man's jaw.

The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where his jaw was wired shut.

It is not known if the animal survived.

"We didn't find the armadillo," the sheriff said.

Revenge on human-killers

This is not the first time an armadillo has exacted revenge on its murderer.

In April, a man who took aim at one of the armoured animals somehow shot his 74-year-old mother-in-law in the back.

WALB News10 said Larry McElroy, 54, tried to kill the creature outside her home in Lee County, Georgia.

The bullet bounced off the armadillo, hit a fence, went through the elderly woman’s back door and through the back of the chair she was sitting in.

Investigator Bill Smith from Lee County Sheriff's Office told WALB:

“Just the circumstances - just all the way around - the whole situation was unusual.”

The woman was not seriously injured.

Sources: Reuters, YouTube, WALB News10