It fled the “scene.”
A Kansas camel caused a kerfuffle after fleeing a live Nativity scene, whereupon it ran amok through the town for a full day before being apprehended by lasso.
A police account describing the dromedary drama is going viral on Facebook.
“Officers and Animal Control spent the entire day chasing down a loose camel,” wrote the Bonner Springs Police Department of the incident, which occurred Saturday.
The Arabian camel’s halter broke while it was on display at the Agriculture Hall of Fame’s Nativity scene Saturday evening, whereupon the double-humped Houdini snuck away before anyone noticed, Fox 4 reported.
Meanwhile, police were alerted to the escape at 8:20 a.m. the following morning, when a caller informed them that there was a camel roaming loose on the Sunflower Hills Golf Course, the Kansas City Star reported.
Authorities hit the ground running after the elusive fugitive by commandeering golf carts, but they weren’t enough to outrun the cam on the lam.
“It ran into the woods from there after officers tried to catch it,” Sgt. Heather Pate, a public information officer with the department, told the Kansas City Star.
That afternoon, dispatchers notified police that the camel was galloping south along the K7 highway.
That’s where police “learned that camels can run 40 mph,” said Pate.
Along the way, various onlookers posted hilarious Facebook videos of the camel’s escapades, showing it perusing a local park and gunning down the interstate.
Pate said that during the camel’s great escape, “it pretty much traversed from one side of the city to the other.”
Fortunately, officers and Animal Control were finally able to corner the camel and “it was safely ‘taken into custody’ by lasso!” per the Facebook post.
Shortly thereafter, the dromedary’s owners arrived with a trailer and ferried the camel back home.
The wild camel chase ended about 24 hours after it flew the coop.
This isn’t the first time an exotic critter has stampeded through US streets.
In March, a tiger was filmed running wild in a Houston neighborhood — with one man pointing what appeared to be a gun at the wild animal. Thankfully, the confrontation ended with the alleged owner dragging the big cat back inside the house.