Waitress drags huge goanna from Aussie restaurant
<p>When a huge goanna made a surprise appearance at a winery restaurant in Australia, a French waitress quickly took control of the situation.</p>
<p>On Sunday, Samia Lila was serving at the packed restaurant in southern New South Wales when a customer grabbed her hand and pointed at the unwelcome scaly visitor crawling across the floor.</p>
<p>"I looked at it and thought it was a dog at first," Lila said. "But then I realised it was a goanna."</p>
<p>About 180cm long, it went under one of the tables and the customers sitting there started to scream.</p>
<p>"Everyone was screaming, so I started screaming too," Lila said.</p>
<p>The 25-year-old put a chair in its path to try and buy time to think of what to do while stopping it from reaching customers.</p>
<p>Running out of options, the best she could think of was grabbing it by its tail and dragging it outside across the veranda and away from everyone – including past a woman who had by then jumped on her chair.</p>
<p>"I was just like a kid; I thought 'I want to do it, I want to do it, I know it's bad, but it was getting close to customers,’" Ms Lila said. "I wasn't scared, I like reptiles so was a bit excited."</p>
<p>She has been in Australia since November and it was only the second time she had seen a goanna, after scaring one away from the winery's vines last week.</p>
<p>A video of Lila's brave actions was posted on the Mimosa Wines Facebook page and was viewed nearly 200,000 times in two days.</p>
<p>The Normandy resident said she did not expect the video to go viral at all. Due to her actions, she has now been labelled the "Goanna Girl".</p>
<p>She will be working at Mimosa Winery – and protecting it from goannas – under her Working Holiday Visa until June or July before she continues her travels.</p>
<p><em>Written by Albert McKnight. First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz.</span></strong></a> Video: Facebook/Mimosa Wines via Storyful.</em></p>
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