Representational image (Thinkstock)
In a freak incident, a US man trying to shoot an armadillo accidentally hit his mother-in-law after the bullet bounced off the creature's armour.
Larry McElroy was outside his home in Lee County, Georgia when he fired his 9 mm pistol at the armadillo over the weekend.
The armadillo died from the shot, but the bullet ricocheted off the animal, hit a fence and went into the back door of his mother-in-law's mobile home - a distance of about 100 yards.
Then the bullet went through the recliner where the 74-year-old Carol Johnson was sitting and into her back, 'WALB TV' reported.
Johnson was fortunately not severely injured. She was taken to a nearby hospital and is expected to recover.
"Just the circumstances, just all the way around, the whole situation was unusual," said investigator Bill Smith with the Lee county Sheriff's Office.