A catfish fell out of the sky and hit Lisa Lobree in the face

Philadelphia's Lisa Lobree was headed to her fitness class a few days ago when something fell on her head. It wasn't a tree branch or bird droppings. She probably would have preferred either, or both, of those options. Instead, it was a fish. A big, slimy, dead catfish.

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Lobree spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off about her fishy ordeal. Here is part of their conversation.

Carol Off: Lisa, when this thing fell on your head, what did you think had hit you?

Lisa Lobree: At first it was so unclear. That's funny because you'd think it felt like some sort of big slimy thing, slapping my face and head, and possibly back. But it just felt like something heavy hitting me. I knew immediately that it couldn't have been a squirrel because it was so much heavier than a squirrel might have been and I think a squirrel might have spread its claws and landed on my head in a different way. It didn't occur to me at all that it was a fish.

CO: What are the theories as to why a catfish fell on your head when you were in a park in Philadelphia?

LL: My very first thought was who is dropping a catfish, you know, who is dropping a fish on me? I was screaming on the ground and trying to figure out what happened. But pretty much immediately my friend said, "It was a bird." She really didn't get a good look at the bird. She was more concerned about my well-being at the time so she ran over to me and grabbed a towel because I was bleeding. So it's not entirely clear because another friend of mine, who was across the way at the boot camp fitness class that I was heading to, he said he thought he saw more like what could have been an eagle flying off.

CO: But you were hurt by this fish falling on you?

LL: I was absolutely hurt. I wasn't knocked out. I had a cut on my face. Within 24 hours my face swelled up very significantly on the left side where the fish had hit me and I did have a fever the night after it. I felt like it was like a disgusting, dirty fish, who knows what could happen? By the morning, I felt better and I actually saw my physician the next day. She said [the fever] could have very well been from the stress of the trauma. It was just so shocking trying to understand what had happened. I mean, I was pretty hysterical. I was crying and very upset. Even more so because it was a fish. I don't know, if it had been a tree limb that had fallen and I got hurt, that's one thing. But it was like an animal — a really gross stinky animal.

CO: And you've had to tell people that you were hit by a fish?