Catfish eats cell phone in one gulp

HANTS, England, March 9 (UPI) -- A man in Britain was shocked to see a three-foot catfish eat his $500 cell phone after he dropped it in a zoo fish tank, in Hants, England.

Peter Garland said he leaned over the tank to retrieve his son's hat and the cell phone fell out of his jacket pocket and into the aquarium at the zoo in Marwell Zoo, in Hants, England. The fish swallowed it in one gulp, the Mirror reported.

"There were about 50 people around the pool asking me to ring it to see which fish vibrated," he said. "I rang Orange (cell phone company) to tell them -- they were laughing so much they put me on hold for 15 minutes."

Marwell Zoo curator Peter Bircher said he had a look inside the fish's mouth but was unable to retrieve it.

"The next morning the phone was found at the bottom of the pool," he said. "The fish is well and the phone was returned."