A video posted to a neighbourhood Facebook group showed the goat dashing down a sidewalk, next to parked cars.
In a scene that could only be described as a surprise, a Vancouver mother returned home Friday night to find police wrestling a billy goat in the bushes next to her Mount Pleasant apartment building.
“It was very shocking because I don’t know of anywhere or anyone around here that would have a goat,” said Denise Mitchell.
The mother came upon the sight while entering her building’s car park in the 400 block of Great Northern Way at around 8:30 p.m. with her two children. Five uniformed officers attempted to corral the large goat.
“The goat even tried to get away, but one officer had it by the horns and another had a leash around him,” recalled Mitchell.
Neighbours gathered, laughter mixing with the bleats, as the officers restrained the escaped goat, bringing it down a hill and safely loading the animal into the back of a police vehicle.
“It’s not every day that you see cops wrangle a goat,” said Mitchell.
Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Howard Chow said the spectacle unfolded after the detachment received a few reports of a rogue goat roaming the neighbourhood at around 7:15 p.m.
A video posted to a neighbourhood Facebook group showed the goat dashing down a sidewalk, next to parked cars.
Chow lauded a few residents in the neighbourhood who took it upon themselves to track the goat, who was stuck in a thorn bush next to St. Francis Xavier Church when police arrived.
“Some of #VancouversFinest were able to corral and bring it to an officer’s family farm, while we track down the owner,” Chow posted Saturday on X.
The mystery remains as to where the goat came from.
“No one would take the goat off our hands,” Chow said Saturday afternoon. “So, one of our officers has a family farm out in Abbotsford and we took it there.”
Police and the B.C. SPCA are hoping they will be able to reunite the animal with its owner.