Florida Cops Have a Really Strange Chase

Police in Fort Lauderdale had quite the day Thursday after getting a call about an unlikely escapee. WPLG reports that for 30 minutes or so, cops were in hot pursuit of a kangaroo that escaped from a local home. "I'm trying to catch a kangaroo!" one cop can be heard telling a dispatcher in a police bodycam video that shows the kangaroo hopping through the city and ultimately getting nabbed by the authorities. "We just tried to corral it and keep it out of traffic," one of the officers who helped take the kangaroo into custody tells WPLG. "He's very friendly. We were able to get a rope around his neck and get him in the back of the car." Per the Sun Sentinel, the 2-year-old kangaroo's name is Jack, and Jack's owner is Anthony Macias, who says he thinks he left the gate open while dragging his recycling bin to the front.

"He's so nice," Macias says. "He doesn't mean anyone any harm." Macias says he got Jack—who he says has made a great playmate for his corgi, Max—about four months ago from a man in Davie who was moving and didn't want to take Jack with him. Unfortunately for Macias, it's against the law to house a kangaroo in Fort Lauderdale, but he notes that friends in Palm Beach County have offered to take Jack in, so at least he'll be able to visit. The state's Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, which has Jack for now, is investigating; it's not clear if Macias will face any consequences for his illegal ownership. WESH notes Florida has seen escaped kangaroos before: in 2014, when one made the rounds in Orange County, and the year before that, when one got loose in Pasco County. Sheriff's deputies successfully nabbed those escapees as well. (More strange stuff stories.)