Man calls police to report he is being followed by a pig

‘We will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard,’ officers say

The marauding swine was 'wrangled' into a police car and later returned to its owner (NRPD)

A man US police assumed was “obviously drunk” phoned officers to report he was being followed by a pig and did not know what to do about it.

When sceptical officers caught up with the man they found him entirely sober – and established he really was being followed by the porcine beast.

Officers from North Ridgeville police department (NRPD) in Ohio came across the scene at about 5.30am on Saturday.

The man had not just left a bar, as they had suspected, but was found on Centre Ridge Road in Elyria, on his way home from the Amtrak train station, the department said.

In a Facebook post, police said: “Night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5.26am.

“He was at least drunk enough to call the police on himself while hallucinating.

“Upon arrival, they found a very sober male walking eastbound on Center Ridge near Maddock Road from the actual Amtrak train station in Elyria, not the bar. Oh, and he was being followed by a pig.

“Yes, a pig. Patrolman Kuduzovic managed to wrangle (I think this is the correct word to use) said pig into his cruiser.”

The pig was later returned to its unnamed owner after a spell in the department’s dog kennel, which was briefly repurposed as a pig pen.

NRPD also attempted to pre-empt a number of jokes at its expense.

“We will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard,” they said.

The encounter came two years after North Ridgeville officers were forced to capture a kangaroo – named Foster – that had escaped its pen.

“We get animal calls. A lot of animal calls. Usually dogs. Every now and then a horse. I had a potbellied pig rooting through a flower bed once,” one officer wrote on Facebook at the time.

Dealing with kangaroos is not on the police academy curriculum, the department joked.