Kansas Woman Uses Public Bathroom To Find Escaped Tiger Inside

A Kansas woman was spending a Saturday at the Circus with her 3-year-old daughter when she went to the bathroom and found an escaped tiger inside. The tiger in the bathroom had escaped its enclosure and wandered into the bathroom.

Jenna Krehbiel went to use the bathroom and when the door closed behind her, saw the tiger standing about 2-feet away. The animal was coming towards her. Krehbiel did not scream or run away from the tiger in the bathroom. She calmly slipped out the door. A few minutes later the tiger was captured and returned to its enclosure.

The Kansas newspaper the Salina Journal was the first to report on the tiger in the bathroom incident. Krehbiel told them, "You don't expect to go in a bathroom door, have it shut behind you and see a tiger walking toward you."

"Looking back, it was a scary ordeal. At the time, I was thinking I just needed to get out," she added.

Krehbiel also said her training, as a social worker was what helped her to remain calm. Tigers are predators, had the woman run when she saw the tiger in the bathroom the animal might have attacked her thinking she was prey.

When Jenna Krehbiel told her family about the tiger in the bathroom, her 3-year-old daughter was no too worried about her mom's ordeal. The little girl simply wanted to know if the tiger washed his hands.

"That was her only concern," Krehbiel said. "I think that shows the thoughts of children and that they wouldn't have known there was danger."

The tiger is the largest member of the cat family. They can weigh between 300 and 600 pounds. They are strong predators with jaws capable of tearing flesh and breaking bone.