Things were getting back to normal Wednesday afternoon for a zebra named Barcode after a night spent as a college prank on the Emory University at Oxford campus in Newton County.

"He's back in his pen, and he seems a little rowdy right now, but otherwise I think he's OK," said the animal's owner, Curtis Jackson, 63.

Jackson didn't even know Barcode had been stolen until animal control officials returned the 800-pound animal, unharmed, to his home and 53 acres of pasture about a mile from campus Wednesday morning.

Campus police were still trying to find out who put the zebra on the third floor of Seney Hall sometime Tuesday night. But locating the animal's rightful owner wasn't much of a mystery.

"How many people own zebras around here?" quipped Teri Key-Hooson, director of Newton County Animal Control. "We figured it was Mr. Jackson's because we made a call out there for his zebra a couple of years ago."

Nor was the sudden appearance of an animal in Seney Hall a great shocker when public safety workers discovered it when they opened the building about 7 a.m.

Putting animals inside Seney Hall had passed for a dry wit on the Emory at Oxford campus for decades. Jackson, who has lived near the school most of his life, remembers chickens being left in the building.

Dean Stephen Bowen said he can recall at least one cow deposited there, back in the 1960s.

"It's been about 50 years," Bowen said shortly after animal control officers, using a treat of sweet feed, lured the zebra out of the building, "and we hope it's another 50 years."

Bowen said it was unlikely the responsible party would be punished. "We're not launching a major manhunt," he joked.

And whoever put Barcode in the building made sure the zebra didn't get hurt. "They lined up a row of chairs so the animal couldn't get close to the windows and injure itself," Bowen said.

Jackson wasn't so forgiving. The zebra-nappers had to take two gates off their hinges to steal Barcode, and there was always the chance he could have been injured.

"If they're students and they're caught, I think they'll be expelled," said Jackson, who also keeps horses and other livestock on his property. "I think that's the proper punishment."

It was the second zebra incident this month in metro Atlanta. On April 8, a young zebra was found injured and wandering along I-75 in Butts County. The animal was sent to Auburn University in Alabama, where it is recovering from injuries. Officials believe the zebra fell out of a truck. No one has come forward to claim the animal, so when he is rehabilitated, he will become a permanent resident of Noah's Ark rescue and rehabilitation center in Locust Grove, director Diane Smith said Wednesday.

People are wondering if there's suddenly a surge in the state's zebra population, given the slim odds of two making the Atlanta news in a span of about two weeks.

Sorry. No state zebra boom, said Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Robin Hill. According to state records, only about 50 of the striped beasts call Georgia home, a number that has been static in recent years.