Piglet Pickles made a daring escape last week that sparked a frantic pig chase through the streets of Sebastopol, a sleepy town north of San Francisco.
The miniature pig's new owner, Mattie Scariot, had just picked him up last Wednesday and was taking him to his new home when the pig made his brilliant escape. First he needed a distraction. Then he pooped in the back seat.
While Scariot cleaned up the mess with a napkin, Pickles ran to freedom through an open car door.
“It's not over. She liked to jump. He was thrown out of the car,” said Scariot, who had just received the new pet pig from his previous owners. He bought Pickles to keep his dog, Biscuit, company. Pickles is a gray pig with black spots, about a foot long.
The escape turned into a rampage involving about 20 people, including six Sevastopol police officers, a farmer, three businessmen and a group of children who joined in the pursuit of the pigs.
A man tried to catch the piglet with a large fishing net, but to no avail. Another tried to throw a tarp over Pickles, but it was impossible.
Body camera footage recorded by one of the officers at the scene shows police and locals trying and failing to catch the slippery animal as it glided down the street like a clever runner dodging tacklers.
“Officers arrived and located the described piglet which…proved to be very fast and strong for an animal its size,” the Sebastopol Police Department said in a Facebook post. The department added that officers decided not to charge Pickles with resisting a police officer. “Instead, we felt it was beneficial to simply caution 'Pickles' for running away from the officers!”
While it was happening, Scariot struggled to see the comedy in the situation. There was a highway nearby and Scariot was nervous that Pickles might take the fast lane and get hit by a car. He also felt bad for causing trouble in Sevastopol.
“'This can not be happening. How is this happening?'” she wondered. “I felt really bad for the police officers. I said, 'Have you ever had to chase a pig?' And an officer said, 'No, this is my first time.'”
But after about 30 minutes of running, a good Samaritan was finally able to stop Pickles and Scariot took him home.
“It's decided, that's for sure,” Scariot said of his little pig. “We are totally in love with him. I'm glad everything turned out well.”
