Imagine heading down the road in your four-wheel, and seeing a few passing motorists pointing towards your front wheel. Worried that you might have punctured a tire, you jump out and notice that it's perfectly fine - except that a koala is nestled behind it.
That's what one driver experienced while they were travelling through the Adelaide Hills and realised the Australian marsupial had been in there for a whopping 16 kilometres. But it wasn't an easy case of getting the koala out from behind the wheel - and the fire brigade had to be called.
Credit: Channel Nine
They had to remove the wheel of the vehicle and discovered that the female had miraculously not suffered any serious injuries. Metropolitan Fire Service's David Juniper told Channel Nine: "It's amazing. It's a windy road, it's downhill, so the car would have been lurching from side to side."
The fire service decided to name it Kelly, after one of their staff members who led the rescue operation.
Fauna Rescue South Australia was also brought in to check over the koala, as spokesperson Jane Brister told Channel Nine: "She was stuck in there, I tried to get her out but she was really wedged in there tight and hanging on for dear life. You think you've seen it all - no, I've never seen anything like that and it's absolutely incredible."
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Jane says the fur animal was crying and definitely in shock from the ordeal. However, she added to the Adelaide Advertiser, that while it was amazing that the koala was alive, the same couldn't be said for her joey.
Credit: Channel Nine
"She had been feeding recently, and when they have a bigger back-riding joey they leave little knots," Jane said. "They knot up all the fur on their mum's back from holding on and she had that on her back.
"I was out searching for the joey for two days but I wasn't able to find it."
Kelly was cared for by Fauna Rescue for several days before being released into the wild when she was back to full health. Kelli says: "After everything that she's been through, she's had so much stress and trauma. To see her just toddle off and up the tree... currently she's found the biggest fork in the tree, she's snuggled up and she's fast asleep."
There's a reason the koala is an iconic part of Australia, maybe because they're native to the country, but also because they're hard yakka.
Featured Image Credit: Channel Nine