A brave resident used a stepladder to drive away a monitor lizard walking toward his house in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 11.

Video shows the man wielding the stepladder and using it to poke the large reptile that had crawled under a car in his garage.

The locals later used a pole to poke the beast, sending it scurrying onto the neighbourhood street.

Homeowner PeeMai Suttiparpa said: 'There aren't a lot of monitor lizards around our house. Some appear, but this is the first time one has rushed into our garage like this.'

Asian water monitor lizards normally live in canals, swamps, sewers and ponds in cities in Thailand. They feed on fish, snakes, frogs and scraps of food left by humans.

The reptiles are aggressive when threatened and have a mildly venomous bite which sometimes carries harmful bacteria. The Godzilla-like reptiles are also a protected species in the country so their population thrives.