Escaped Kangaroo Punches Canadian Cop

They've made it an honorary member of K9 unit
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 5, 2023 5:39 PM CST

Police officers east of Toronto dealt with a situation Monday that their training probably never covered: an escaped kangaroo. The animal hopped over its handlers and escaped late last week during what was supposed to be a brief stop at the Oshawa Zoo en route to Quebec. Staff Sgt. Chris Boileau of the Durham Regional Police Service says the kangaroo was spotted in a rural area early Monday and an officer was punched in the face while recapturing it, the CBC reports. "It's something that he and his platoon mates will be remembering for the rest of their careers," he says.

Bouileau says the officers contacted the kangaroo's handlers and on their advice, "they actually just grabbed it by the tail." Videos of the kangaroo running down rural roads was shared on social media on Friday, the day after its escape, but search parties were unable to track it down amid bad weather over the weekend. Officials say the kangaroo is in good shape and will stay at the Oshawa Zoo until it is fully recovered. The officer struck by the kangaroo was not injured and the force apparently doesn't have any hard feelings: CityNews reports that it has been made an honorary member of the K9 unit.

Police released body camera footage of the kangaroo encounter. "The entire incident was not recorded —currently, officers are not required to activate their cameras for interactions with kangaroos as per the DRPS directive (currently under roo-view)," police said in a statement. "This camera recording of the kangaroo was triggered when she nudged one of the responding officers." (More kangaroo stories.)

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