This fugitive had to be hog-tied.
New Jersey cops were forced to tackle a 200-pound runaway pot-bellied pig named Pumba after the hefty hog broke out of a Gloucester County farm, according to police.
Pics posted on Facebook by the Washington Township Police Department show officers wrestling the porky escapee and getting him onto a waiting truck.
Pumba snuck out through an open gate on Friday.
“PUMBA the 200 Lb potbelly pig has been safely returned to his farm,” the department said in the post. “Apparently, a small child left the pasture gates open. Nice work by our officers — Marc Wolfe, Frank Cicalese and Victor Rossi.”
Pumba’s owner was surprised that his pig got loose at all.
“My neighbor told me, ‘Your pig’s on Facebook,’” the owner, identified only as Jay, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I said, ‘The pig ain’t on Facebook. I was just out there a half hour ago and the pig was in the yard. I saw it and said, ‘Man, that’s my pig!’
Pumba was spotted the next day hobbling through traffic in town near a Mattress Firm outlet and The Village Pub, and cops were called in for the hunt – and eventual capture,
Jay said he adopted Pumba about eight years ago and brought him home to his farm, where he already has a horse and a couple of chickens, the outlet reported.
“When I go in there to feed him I talk to him, even though he ain’t talking back,” Jay told the Inquirer. “I let him live his life out there, whatever a pig’s life is.”
He said his 2-year-old grandson, who lives next door, must have forgotten to close the gate.
But all is forgiven with Pumba back home slopping around – as pigs do.