Oddly Enough ·ABCNEWS.com · 

Flocking to See the Lucky Lizard

Updated: Thu, Jun 28 9:11 AM EDT
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Residents of a Thai town are flocking to the home of a bereaved mother to touch and see a five-foot monitor lizard she says is a reincarnation of her 13-year-old son and a bringer of good fortune.
Chamlong Taengniem, whose son Charoen died in a motorcycle crash, told Reuters that the lizard followed her home after her son's June 17 cremation, slept on his mattress in the house and loves his favorite beverage -- fresh milk and drinking yogurt.
Crowds of up to 200 people have been thronging outside the house in Nonthaburi, 20 miles north of the capital Bangkok, offering their respects and showering the creature with gifts.
Some scratch the lizard's back and stomach and hunt for numbers for Thailand's state lottery on its skin.
Chamlong, 51, says that her son turned into the lizard and she and her neighbors say that the creature had not been previously seen in the area.
People in the mainly Buddhist nation believe in reincarnation and that spirits of people can roam around after death and inhabit other people, animals and haunt trees and buildings.
Neighbor Pranom Chamchuen, 64, said she did not believe the lizard was the dead boy at first but changed her mind after seeing its response to hearing the boy's name.
Just like the boy, the lizard is very polite, she added.
"When the reptile wants to use the toilet, it crawls from its bed to a lavatory outside the house," she told the Kao Soda newspaper.