When Oxford, Mississippi, Police Officer Cody Pruitt showed up to work on Friday, the last thing he might have expected was a selfie — with an emu.
It all started around noon, when police got a call about a “large bird” walking around.
“My initial reaction was we have to go see this. It was something unusual and a fun call to be on if we found it,” said Pruitt.
As officers began to patrol near Highway 6, Pruitt found an emu crossing the highway into the woods.
He and another patrol officer managed to capture the feathered fowl when it backed up against a barbed wire fence.
“I walked towards it, it did not move (and) I then held it until the other officer came,” Pruitt said. They used a rope to restrain it until animal control officers arrived.
That’s when Pruitt snapped a selfie with the emu. The department posted it on Twitter with the hashtag #TheEmuWhisperer.
The arriving animal control officers realized they needed more assistance to handle the oversized bird. They contacted their commander to get horse trainers, who were able to secure the emu.
Oxford Police helped transport the bird to a nearby farm where other emus are located. It’s still unclear where the animal came from.
Emus are large, flightless birds native to Australia. They belong to the same family of flightless birds as ostriches.
