Tiny gecko manages to make ‘a bazillion’ calls from seal hospital

The call was coming from inside the building.

Actually, there were 'a bazillion' calls coming from the Ke Kai Ola Marine Mammal Center in Hawaii. One call after another was sent to the hospital's director, Claire Simeone. Nine calls in 15 minutes, she said in a Twitter post.

But no one was on the line when she answered, so she went back to the hospital.

Simeone asked around at work, but no one confessed to the phone blast. So she called Hawaiian Telecom, which told her all the calls came from a single line inside the facility.

"I walk around the hospital. Not the fish kitchen. Not the office. Not the viewing room. I get another call from @TMMC on my cell. I enter the laboratory. That's the line!" she tweeted.

The problem wasn’t a faulty wire or any other technical issue. It was a gecko that had found its way on to the touchscreen of a phone. The sticky toe pads of the tiny gold dust gecko would make phone calls as the lizard walked on the phone.

Simeone said she had to send a note to all staff and volunteers telling them what happened.

“I immediately hired the gecko,” she said.

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