# Man Wakes Up With Bat In His Bedroom, Internet Asks The REAL Question: Did He Smash?
Tucson, AZ — A 31-year-old software engineer who identifies as a “light sleeper” is currently undergoing a series of painful rabies shots after allegedly waking up to find a bat flying around his bedroom at 3 AM. And before you ask: yes, Reddit has already decided he’s the asshole.
The incident, which has since gone viral on r/WellThatSucks, has sparked a furious debate that cuts to the very core of the American psyche: Is rabies a legitimate health crisis, or is this just another dude trying to get out of a morning commute?
According to the now-deleted original post, user u/CaffeineAndCripplingAnxiety claimed he “heard a weird flapping sound” around 2:47 AM, assumed it was a pigeon that had somehow gotten trapped in his HVAC system, and decided to “just roll over and ignore it.” Forty-seven minutes later, he woke up to find a small, furry creature “landing on my chest like a goddamn Pokémon.”
The internet, predictably, did not hold back.
“Bro, you’re telling me a bat landed on you and you didn’t immediately assume you were turning into Dracula? I would have started buying turtlenecks and avoiding garlic immediately,” wrote u/GothamKnight2025.
“NTA. The bat is TA for not respecting your personal space. But also, YTA for not having a rabies vaccine scheduled before the bat even left the room. You had one job, and it was to not die from a preventable disease,” countered u/MedicalMaven99.
The viral post has since racked up 45,000 upvotes and 12,000 comments, with the majority of the discourse revolving around a single, burning question that the OP has so far refused to answer: “Did you try to catch it, or did you just let it fly around your bedroom like some kind of chaotic neutral demigod?”
The OP’s response, buried in a thread that has since been locked by moderators, was characteristically defensive: “I don’t know, okay? I was half asleep. I didn’t want to catch it. It’s a wild animal. I’m not Steve Irwin. I’m a guy who works in SaaS.”
This, of course, was the wrong answer.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in humans and other mammals, and it is almost always fatal once clinical symptoms appear. The primary vector in the United States? You guessed it: bats. The CDC recommends that anyone who has direct contact with a bat — especially if they wake up to find one in their room — immediately seek post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which is a series of four shots over 14 days. The shots are not fun. They are administered directly into the wound site and the shoulder, and they have been described by survivors as “feeling like someone is injecting a very angry hornet directly into your soul.”
The cost of this life-saving treatment? Anywhere from $3,800 to $10,000 depending on your insurance, or roughly the price of a used 2012 Honda Civic with 180,000 miles and a mysterious check engine light.
“The real horror here isn’t the bat,” wrote u/FinancialPlannerGary in a comment that has since been gilded three times. “The real horror is the American healthcare system. Dude is going to have to choose between dying of rabies or going into medical bankruptcy. That’s the real American nightmare.”
This has led to a secondary, even more heated debate: Is it financially irresponsible to seek medical treatment for a bat encounter? r/personalfinance has already weighed in with a detailed spreadsheet comparing the costs of rabies PEP versus a “wait and see” approach that involves buying a crossbow and a garlic necklace from Etsy.
“Look, I’m not saying rabies isn’t serious,” wrote u/DebtFreeOrDieTrying. “But have you looked at your deductible lately? I could take a bat to the face and still be financially better off than one trip to the ER. The math is mathing.”
The OP has since confirmed that he did, in fact, go to the emergency room. He is currently on day 3 of his rabies vaccine series and reports “a lot of shoulder pain and a growing resentment for the bat community.”
“I just wanted to sleep, man,” he told a local news outlet. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for any of this. Now I can’t even look at a cave without having a panic attack.”
The bat, meanwhile, was captured by animal control and tested for rabies. Results are pending, but the internet has already decided its fate.
“Free the bat,” wrote u/BatFactsDaily. “He was just looking for a warm place to sleep. You’re the one who left your window open. This is on you, chief.”
As of press time, the OP has not responded to requests for comment, largely because he is currently fighting for his life against the very real possibility that he is about to become the next patient zero in a rabies outbreak that will be blamed entirely on a guy who didn’t want to get out of bed at 3 AM.
So, Reddit: is he the asshole? Or is the bat the asshole? Let us know in the comments, and please remember to vaccinate your pets, close your windows, and never, ever wake up.
Final Thoughts
Having covered outbreaks from rural Appalachia to remote tropical caves, I can tell you that the real story here isn't just about the virus lurking in a bat's saliva—it's about the dangerous gap between public perception and reality. While the media loves the "flying monster" narrative, the far more insidious threat is the complacency of a vaccinated pet owner who shrugs off a tiny, unseen scratch. Ultimately, rabies in bats remains a chilling reminder that our modern, sanitized world is still just one forgotten booster shot away from a terrifying, 99.9% fatal disease.