The Oconee County Georgia Sheriff’s Office responded to a most unusual call yesterday.
“Units are responding to a runaway llama on the 10 Loop near exit 1,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook. “We can’t make this stuff up.”
Yup, a llama was on the loose near Athens Georgia.
Which naturally prompted a flurry of media attention.
“Based upon the number of media outlets that are calling about the llama, I can only surmise that President-Elect Trump must not have tweeted anything today; so, now they are scrambling for a story,” wrote Chief Deputy Lee Weems.
Here’s what happened. Yes, all this really happened. And it’s amazing.
“Around 4:00PM, dispatch notified me that someone had reported ‘a baby camel running loose in Epps Bridge Road’. Our deputies are not trained in South American camelid identification, but they quickly determined that the animal in question was actually a llama.
Deputies, with the assistance of, and I kid you not, several llama experts who just happened to be traveling on Epps Bridge Road at that exact moment, managed to corral the llama in the dumpster area behind the Cook Out. We would also like to thank the good folks at Cook Out for providing a bag of carrots to help lure the llama into the dumpster area.
Contact was made with the llama’s owner (thanks to new County Commission Chairman John Daniell who had his phone number), and the owner’s son came to the scene with a van and hauled the llama home. The llama belongs to a resident of Oconee County. We do not know at this time whether it just wanted to go for a stroll or if it was concerned about the weather forecast this weekend and was attempting to buy bread and milk. I asked, but it refused to answer questions. Perhaps this is because I don’t speak Spanish nor any of the native Peruvian languages.
We would like to thank the folks at Southeast Llama Rescue who were on the way to get the llama prior to our locating its owner.”
Social media, naturally, went gaga for the llama.
A runaway llama was spotted walking around on a highway in Athens this afternoon. It was captured safely. pic.twitter.com/LjYqgLqvEx
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) January 5, 2017
it’s a good day for oconee county cops pic.twitter.com/7m1kQqakVw
— katie beth carey (@katiebethcarey) January 4, 2017
And so, here is the captured llama.
And here’s one of the heroes of the rather tall tale.
Basically, we love everything about this.
