Claims that Giant Spider Spotted in Kansas City, Missouri?

I knew this was going to be a good day and by good day, I mean a not boring day. I have come across a claim that giant spiders have been spotted in Kansas City, Missouri. Let's get to the bottom of this arachnid mystery.

I'm not sure what I've done today to deserve the wonderful gift that I came across on the Missouri sub-Reddit. It was someone asking a very curious question about spiders. I don't think this was posted super-recently, but recently enough.

Has any else seen any huge spiders in KC recently?
byu/WaldoChief inkansascity

I'm not going to assume you can read the Reddit embed on your device, so here's a snippet of what was mentioned for context:

"Hi all, I live in south OP. Over the last year, I have encountered some of the largest spiders in our garage and around our home, that I have ever seen in my 30+ years of living in KC. And I don’t mean the big wolf spiders either... Last night, I encountered a spider that was 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter."

Here are some of my favorite comments on that post:

"I’m going to pretend like I did not see this post."

"If you're getting wolf spiders that big, I do NOT want to know where they're getting food in your house to allow them to grow that big."

So what spider did this Kansas City, Missouri veteran see anyway?

The consensus among the comments and the most likely scientific answer according to the Missouri Department of Conservation is that he saw a big a** wolf spider. (the commenters description, not mine)

There is one other possibility though. Texas Brown Tarantulas are native to Missouri and bigger than wolf spiders, but they're not common north of the Missouri River. However, they are much more hairy and likely would have been identified if that's what he really saw.

Let's hope this is not the beginning of a Missouri wolf spider mutation where these already large arachnids are about to get even bigger. NOPE.