Scared Of Spiders, Sapulpa Woman Turns To Facebook

A Sapulpa insurance agent found a new use for social media Tuesday when she felt threatened by a tarantula outside her office. A post for help on the Sapulpa Chit Chat Facebook page led to a happy ending for Allstate agent Tina Rogers - and the spider.

Just after lunchtime Rogers looked out her window in the 500 block of West Taft and saw the small brown tarantula on a wooden post. Her gasp caused a co-worker to think there'd been a wreck on the busy Sapulpa street.

Her dislike of tarantulas started at a young age when she was growing up in Drumright.

"I'm deathly afraid of tarantulas ever since I was 7 or 8 years old," Tina said. "My dad was sitting on our couch and all of a sudden, he shook his pant's leg and this tarantula flew out of it. It was probably the size of a baseball."

She tried to call the company's pest control guy, but when she just got an answering machine, she turned to Facebook.

"I thought, I'm going to put it on Sapulpa Chit Chat cause everybody helps everybody there," she said.

She posted: "Does someone want to rescue us from this tarantula!!!!," along with a photo of the spider outside. "I'm here forever now, I cannot do spiders of any kind."

Within an hour, Stacie Nichole and her son were on their way.

The two women had never met - until Tuesday afternoon. Stacie said she and her son regularly catch and release unwanted critters. They came equipped with a plastic pitcher and took the innocent spider a couple of miles away before finding it a new home.

Tina was just glad it was gone.

"They jump!" she said. "Knowing my luck, I'd go outside and it would jump on my face."

She also didn't want anyone walking down the street to get the shock of their lives.

"If I was walking up to an office and a tarantula jumped on me, I would never go back," Tina said. "Never ever."