Health Officials Seeking Woman Who Was Seen Touching a Rabid Bat, Trying to Put It in Her Bag
Health Officials Seeking Woman Who Was Seen Touching a Rabid Bat, Trying to Put It in Her Bag
Charlotte PhillippSun, September 20, 2026 at 8:15 PM UTC
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Bat (stock image)Credit: Getty -
Health officials are searching for a woman in Minneapolis who was seen handling a dead bat that later tested positive for rabies
The Minnesota Department of Health warned that bat bites can be painless and recommended contacting a doctor for a rabies assessment if exposed
Rabies cases are rising in the U.S., with bat bites being the most common source of transmission to humans
Minnesota health officials are searching for a woman who was spotted touching a dead bat that later tested positive for rabies.
Photos of a flyer posted by the Minnesota Department of Health began circulating on social media after the unidentified woman was seen trying to put a dead bat from a Minneapolis sidewalk into her bag on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Authorities confirmed to local outlet Bring Me the News that the incident — during which the woman was seen “crouching by the bat and putting it into a bag” — occurred around 12 p.m. local time on Hennepin Avenue, located between North Washington Avenue and North 3rd Street.
According to social media posts, the Minnesota Department of Health flyer states that authorities were hoping to get in contact with the woman, who was described as “a 25-to-30-year-old white woman, about 5’5”, with curly brown hair and a curly-haired golden retriever-like dog.”
Bat (stock image)Credit: Getty
The Minnesota Department of Health shared in its poster that bat bites can be extremely small and painless and may not leave a mark. Officials advised anyone who touched or had physical contact with the bat to speak with a health care provider or contact the health department for a rabies assessment at 651-201-5414.
Health officials also urged the woman described in the flyer to call 911 and ask to be connected to Animal Care & Control.
“If you did not touch or have any contact with the bat, you have no risk of rabies and do not need shots,” the department clarified.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Minnesota Department of Health for an update on the Sept. 15 incident.
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This marks the second case of rabies in Minnesota this month. The state’s Board of Animal Health announced on Thursday, Sept. 17, that a dairy cow had tested positive for rabies.
The heifer was euthanized, and the animal’s head was tested for rabies at the Minnesota Department of Health Public Health Laboratory, the agency said. Brain tissue tested positive for rabies on Sept. 8. Officials recommended that nine people who came into contact with the cow and its saliva — including the animal’s owner, two children, two veterinarians and others — get rabies post-exposure vaccines as a preventative measure.
Elsewhere in the U.S., there have been several recent instances of human contact with bats that led to people being examined for rabies.
In August, a Virginia doctor shared a public service announcement after she woke up to a bat trying to climb into her mouth.
Dr. Krista Edelman, a gastroenterologist who lives in a century-old house in Richmond, shared in a now-viral Instagram video on Aug. 21 that a bat was trying to “burrow between” her lips into her mouth while she slept.
“As a physician, I knew we were supposed to try to catch this bat so that it can actually be tested and see if there is rabies in its brain, because rabies is relatively prevalent in bats,” Edelman said, explaining that her husband caught the bat so it could be tested.
Although the bat eventually tested negative for rabies, Edelman and her husband did begin treatment for the virus. As she shared in her now-viral video, “If you are exposed or if you’re sleeping and there’s a bat around, you don’t know if it could have, you know, bit you or had contact, you need to be proactive and go to ... the local ER and they will get you set up with the immunoglobulin and vaccine.”
Cases of rabies are on the rise, and in the U.S., the most common way people get rabies is from bat bites, according to the Cleveland Clinic, which warns that because bite marks are as small as the “tip of a pencil,” many people “don’t know they’ve been bitten.”
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
