Alabama highway shut down after rogue kangaroo causes two car crashes

A kangaroo named Sheila escaped captivity and wandered away from her home, eventually making it all the way to the highway. She caused so much mayhem that an entire section of the interstate in Alabama had to be shut down.

Considering kangaroos are native to Australia, one hopping along an Alabama highway is surely something motorists weren’t expecting.

Two cars swerved out of the way to avoid hitting it once they realized that, yes, they were in fact seeing a real kangaroo, and Sheila’s antics caused an entire section of the highway to be shut down so the owner could subdue the animal with assistance from police.

As it turns out, this kangaroo wasn’t part of a zoo; someone who lived in Alabama just really wanted to have a kangaroo as a pet.

Kangaroo causes mayhem on Alabama highway

Owner Patrick Starr told the Associated Press that Sheila is a “sweet pet”, and that she’d just escaped from her enclosure that day.

Though Starr’s family runs a petting zoo, they keep her away from the rest of the animals and in her own enclosure. However, one small slip-up caused a lot of havoc.

Officers were confused by reports coming in of a kangaroo disrupting traffic on the highway, but that’s exactly what they found when they arrived on the scene.

Sheriff Andre Brunson livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook, showing the owner getting the kangaroo back into custody and the entire road being shut down.

“Wow, a kangaroo fella in Tuskegee, Alabama. We see a little bit of everything here,” the Sheriff said.

Sheila and the drivers of both vehicles are unharmed, and the owner was able to tranquilize the animal and get her back into captivity.

So, while the incident caused a huge stoppage in traffic, no one was seriously injured as a result of the kangaroo’s escape. Though Starr is surely looking for ways to make her enclosure a bit more secure to make sure that Sheila doesn’t get out again.