ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A St. Johns County sheriff’s corporal found himself in unfamiliar territory Saturday. Cpl. Keisler responded to a call for a runaway emu on County Road 13.
“Interesting. I’m in pursuit of an emu,” he could be heard saying on his body camera. “He’s running back southbound in the middle of the road. Come here,” Keisler said as he exited his cruiser approaching the massive bird.
The suspect didn’t comply.
At one point as Keisler tried to coax the emu to the side of the road and back into a yard, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to grab it.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never handcuffed an emu before, but they’ll fit,” he said approaching the bird with a makeshift lasso.
Like all good lawmen, Keisler always gets his bird.
He gently approached the emu as it was in the brush near a fence. “There you go,” Keisler said placing the lasso around the bird’s long neck. “Look whose got you now,” he said.
The emu was safely reunited with its owners. “All criminal charges against the emu were dropped,” the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office joked in a social media post.
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