Australia: Man gets lost in his own back garden

An Australian man has been rescued by police after getting lost in his own garden, while investigating what he thought was a wild dog, it's been reported.

The man, identified as "self-confessed idiot Jason", by Darwin's NT News, external, was eventually located 300m (330 yards) from his house. Jason says he had been watching TV and having a few beers when his dog became agitated. He thought he saw a dingo and went outside into his 8ha (20 acre) property to look for it.

But soon he was lost in the scrub, wearing only shorts, with a phone fast running out of battery. "I don't even know how it happened," Jason says. "I turned to come back and all of a sudden I was in long grass. I just thought 'Where the bloody hell am I?'"

He called the emergency operator, but was rebuffed by a dispatcher who said the situation was not an emergency. Police eventually found him uninjured - except for a few scratches and a mass of midge bites.

Jason says he's grateful to police and neighbours for rescuing him. But comments on the NT News site are less forgiving, with one person using the catch-all Australian insult "Drongo".

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