A man in Texas was injured early Thursday after he opened fire on an armadillo and the bullet ricocheted off the animal and struck him in the face, officials said.
The incident occurred around 3 a.m. local time near the small town of Marietta in eastern Texas, near the state’s border with Arkansas, local station KLTV reported.
Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe told Reuters the unnamed man opened fire on the animal after spotting it in his yard.
“His wife was in the house. He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo,” Rowe told Reuters.
However, one of the three bullets deflected off the armadillo’s hard shell and struck the man in the jaw, Rowe said.