The other night, Andrew Mcleay was enjoying a quiet evening at home in Australia when things took an unexpected turn.

Mcleay needed to grab an item from his car in the garage, but upon opening up the car door, something stopped him in his tracks.

There, dangling from the sunshade, were what appeared to be two giant spiders — each measuring about 5 inches wide.

The mere sight of such large arachnids in his car was enough to get Mcleay’s heart racing, but their unusual positioning, one atop the other, was also quite perplexing.

“I had no idea what was going on at first,” Mcleay told The Dodo.

Initially, Mcleay suspected that the two spiders had been fighting, with one already having claimed victory.

“I thought the top one was alive and the bottom one was dead, as it was limp,” Mcleay said. “Then the bottom one started moving, which freaked me out, but there was no movement from the top one.”

Here’s video of that alarming scene:

Turns out, Mcleay’s suspicions were wrong. Though it looked to be two spiders in his car, there was actually only one. The timing of that sighting had just been a little awkward.

The spider, believed to be a huntsman spider, was actually in the process of molting — shedding off her exoskeleton to facilitate new growth.

“Apparently, it’s rare to witness such a thing,” Mcleay said.

Once her job was done, the spider began to descend from the shell of her former self by a thin line of silk. Mcleay, meanwhile, grabbed a bucket.

Fortunately, Mcleay was able to gently collect the spider and relocate her to a safe spot. He moved the shell, too, out into his garden.

With that, Mcleay was finally able to relax again — well, sorta.

Though huntsman spiders pose no real threat to humans, it was quite jarring to stumble upon one unexpectedly. So, Mcleay’s been keeping his guard up for another hair-raising encounter.

“I keep looking around inside the car every day. If I see [a spider] in traffic, I’ll most likely cause an accident,” Mcleay said with a laugh. “But I’ve used the car a few times [since then]. No others seen, luckily.”

Via: The Dodo.