What happens when a kangaroo crosses the road? Dashcam footage from Kenosha, Wisconsin, sheds some light on that question.
Fire chief Carson Wilkinson didn’t believe his own eyes when he spotted a kangaroo hopping down a local two-lane highway on September 14 at 6.30am.
He put a call in to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, who thought he was ‘losing his marbles’ the responding deputy Nicole Sorensen told the Kenosha News.
Dashcam footage shows Joey the Kangaroo enjoying a brief taste of freedom.
Dashcam footage shows the moment police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, came across a kangaroo who had escaped from a petting zoo on September 14
Fire chief Carson Wilkinson didn’t believe his eyes when he was driving down a local highway at 6.30am and saw the marsupial hoping along the shoulder of the road
The kangaroo named Joey arrived at the petting zoo the night before as part of an attraction that visits every year for pumpkin season
‘I saw something brown coming out of a cornfield, and I thought at first that it was a deer, so I slowed down,’ Wilkinson said.
‘Then it came out in the road. It stopped right in front of me and looked at me, and it was a kangaroo. I was almost scared to call it in.’
The five-year-old kangaroo had escaped from a petting zoo at Jerry Smith’s Farm.
Joey and another kangaroo had just moved into the farm the night before along with ponies, pygmy goats, a miniature camel as part of a petting zoo attraction that visits every year for pumpkin season.
The other kangaroo staying with Joey managed to escape the pen but did not leave the property.
The photo above shows Jerry Smith’s Farm, where Joey had arrived the night before with another kangaroo and other animals for a seasonal petting zoo
Wilkinson thought that the kangaroo was a deer at first when he saw the brown animal emerge from a corn field
Dashcam footage shows the kangaroo hopping into a driveway where he could be captured by authorities and transported back to the farm
On the road, Joey managed to cause some serious confusion among residents and police.
When deputy Sorensen arrived on the scene to capture the kangaroo, she had an audience of bewildered neighbors who aren’t accustomed to seeing marsupials in their yards.
She entertained the idea of putting a leash on Joey, but was nervous about what he might do because he stood nearly as tall as she was.
Luckily she soon received backup.
‘The animal-wrangler guy grabbed him by the tail,’ she said.
They put Joey in the bed of a truck where he sat quietly on the drive back to the farm.
He was reportedly very tame throughout the ordeal and was back at the petting zoo by 8am to get ready to meet children.