Hilarious videos show escaped EMU leading Tennessee police on 20 mile chase at speeds of up to 40mph
Runaway! Hilarious video shows escaped EMU leading Tennessee police on 20 mile chase at speeds of up to 40 mph after escaping enclosure
- MeeMoo jumped six feet vertically over the fence of his enclosure and led police on an incredible 20-mile car chase through a Tennessee town
- Harry McKinney said his pet escaped on Wednesday after being startled by construction workers logging behind his home
- Police eventually surrounded the flightless bird, which had clocked speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, and MeeMoo made it home safely.
This is the incredible moment when a pet emo led police on a bizarre 20-mile car chase through a Tennessee town.
The ratites are known as some of the fastest animals on the planet and MeeMoo has certainly lived up to that reputation with speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
Harry McKinney said the pet escaped from their Roane County ranch on Wednesday after being startled by construction workers cutting down behind his house.
MeeMoo passed the fence with a two-meter vertical jump and ran through the town of Harriman.
The Harriman Police Department quickly got involved and an incredible police chase ensued for over 20 miles before McKinney was able to pack a tired MeeMoo into his truck.
MeeMoo jumped six feet vertically over the fence of his enclosure and led police on an incredible 20-mile car chase through a Tennessee town
Police eventually surrounded the flightless bird, which had clocked speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, and MeeMoo made it home safely.
Harry McKinney said his pet escaped on Wednesday after being startled by construction workers logging behind his home
McKinney did his best to track the bird when it first escaped, but soon lost track of it and posted a call on social media.
He was inundated with messages from residents providing updates on MeeMoo’s whereabouts in the neighborhood, which he then passed on to the police.
McKinney told 6abc News, “I said ‘if you see my emu let me know’ and immediately we were inundated with private messages saying like ‘hey your emu is in my backyard’ and all these videos.”
“The videos posted are pretty amazing to us, but it’s really the tip of the iceberg considering what’s out there.
‘Everyone in the neighborhood has received their own video for this.
“He went by a lot of the sights in the city, he went to some popular restaurants, so it really seemed like he knew where he was going.”
A video of MeeMoo being followed by four police cars as he ran down the road was captured by Steven McDaniel.
He said the chase caught the attention of customers at a restaurant who jumped out of their seats to watch the chase.
A video of MeeMoo being followed by four police cars as he ran down the road was captured by Steven McDaniel
It started at 20 miles per hour, but quickly progressed to speeds of 40 miles per hour.
McDaniel said, “The community that came together just for those few minutes was great to see last night.
“There have been a lot of comments about how funny it was and you know everyone wants to meet MeeMoo now.
“It was worth just making a movie, you know.”
MeeMoo was eventually surrounded by the police, and McKinney was finally able to pick up his exhausted pet from a nearby Victorian home and get him into his truck with the help of a “great friend.”
“We were terrified that he would get hit by a car and someone would hit him with a tranquilizer dart, that he would injure himself during the chase,” he added.
He later revealed on Thursday that his “internet famous” emu briefly escaped but was quickly caught after an hour.
McKinney has now reinforced the fence and raised it to ten feet high.