Rabid Bat Bites Houston Woman At Apartment Complex Parking Garage

HOUSTON, TX — Houston native Katie Koenig saw something fly past her hand and then felt "needles" drill into her hand. She quickly realized a bat bit her inside an apartment complex parking garage, and now she's being treated for rabies. Firefighters trapped the bat in a coffee can, and the bat tested positive for rabies.

Koenig was contacted a day after the incident to alert her the bat was rabid, and she said the first treatments has exceeded $4,000, and that more treatments and hospitalization will be required.

The apartment complex garage is located on Memorial Drive next to Buffalo Bayou Park. At nearby Waugh Street bridge is a colony of Mexican free-tail bats, which has become a popular tourist spot for those who enjoy watching the flying mammals wish away at dusk each night.

"It was about the size of a frog, and I felt it hit my hand, and I flung it away,” Koenig told KHOU. "That's when I realized it was a bat, and I looked down at my hand, and my hand was bleeding."

According to the initial report by KHOU, city leaders claim that 20-40 bats test positive for rabies each year. Koenig said she took her phone and snapped a photo of the bat upon contact, and that's when she knew she'd been bitten.

Caption: Mexican free-tail bat in flight

Photo via Getty Images