Bodycam video shows Arizona police officers sticking an emu in the back of a patrol car
By: -----
Gilbert, AZ - An emu was taken to an animal care facility after being rescued from a canal in Gilbert, Arizona, this month, according to the city's police department.
On Sept. 13, around 8:45 a.m., officers received a call about a large bird in a canal. When they arrived, a small group of residents along the canal trail had already safely pulled an emu out of the water.
The emu was not injured, but officers loaded the soggy bird into the back of a patrol car. In body-worn camera video, one officer can be heard encouraging the bird to get into the backseat on its own, while the other cheers him on.
"You're doing good, dude. You're doing great," he told his partner, who then took the daring move of lifting the large bird and shoving it into the car as it resisted.
One of the officers who responded was still in training, in his first week on the job.
"One to remember!" the department wrote on social media.
The officers breathed a sigh of relief after getting the bird into the car and gently closing the door.
"Oh my gosh," one of them said. "Not what I thought we were going to be doing today."
The officers took the emu to a local animal rescue.
"An emu in a Gilbert canal was not on our officers' bingo card," the police department wrote on Facebook. Police did not say who the bird belonged to or how it got into the canal, but they thanked the bystanders who rescued it.