Rollingwood police successfully brought in the bacon after receiving a call about an errant potbellied pig poking its nose around people’s yards the morning of Nov. 24.
“It’s a large animal – about 200 pounds,” Rollingwood Police Chief Dayne Pryor said. “A man on Hatley (Drive) was walking outside to get the paper and saw a giant pig walking at him, so obviously that startled him.”
The bewildered homeowner called police to report the snorting, stubby-legged loiterer, which ambled its way through several yards by the time police arrived on the scene. Police decided it was "too good an opportunity to pass up," Pryor said, and filmed the pursuit of the runaway pig.
“We called Travis County animal control to get some advice, and they said ‘we actually had somebody report their pet pig missing from the Stassney area,’ ” Pryor said. “We figured, ‘there’s no way the pig walked all the way from there,’ but we sent a picture, and they said ‘yeah that’s him.’ ”
As it turns out, the escaped hog was originally seen by another Rollingwood resident wandering down the middle of Stassney Lane in Austin. The Rollingwood resident picked up the meandering ham and brought it home, meaning to look for its owner. Before the resident could do that, however, the sneaky swine fled the confines of their backyard.
This curly tale ends happily, however.
“Animal control came out, and they had a crate that you’d put a big dog in, and they put some food in there, and he walked in and enjoyed eating his food, and they shut the gate,” Pryor said. “The owner showed up, and (the pig) walked right up to his car and said he was ready to go home.”
With the porker returned safely home, the video of the chase was uploaded to the Rollingwood Police Department Facebook page, where it got more than 14,000 views and was shared more than 100 times. News outlets got wind of the pig’s day out, and soon the department phone lines were hogtied.
“Yeah, it kind of exploded,” Pryor said. “I’m doing interviews for (outlets in) Dallas, Houston … I’m really taken back by how quickly people saw it and started sharing it. It became such a big news story.”
Pryor said he’s just glad the police department pulled one more troublemaker off the streets, even one of the sow variety.
“It just goes to show that each day in law enforcement is different,” Pryor said. “You think you’ve seen it all, and then you’re dispatched to a pig walking down the street. It makes the job – I love calls like that.”
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