Mounties net rogue wallaby

After two nights on the lam in Langley, a wallaby is home safe — and police have learned a valuable new technique in animal apprehension.

Langley RCMP put out a bulletin Thursday afternoon asking members of the public to call the detachment if they spotted the rogue marsupial, which had gone missing from the 22200-block 56th Avenue.

Sgt. Bill Beales said the wallaby’s adventure came to an end around 8:30 a.m. Saturday when a resident enjoying his morning coffee glanced outside his window and spotted what he thought was a kangaroo in his garden.

“He phoned us and said, ‘You won’t believe this,’ ” Beales said. “We went, ‘Actually, we do. We’ll be right there.’”

Police phoned the marsupial’s owners and headed straight to the home where it was spotted, not far from where it had escaped.

Beales said a police officer is always learning while on duty and Saturday morning was no different, when the owners arrived shortly after the officers and showed them the proper way to catch a wallaby.

“You can’t catch them with a noose or a dog pole — you catch them with a fishing net,” Beales said with a chuckle.

The wallaby rode home in a dog crate and “everybody was very happy” afterward, he added.

Beales said police deal with animals regularly and he’s personally chased after bears, cougars, deer and elk. He recommends against trying to herd moose or bison, which have a tendency to ram police cruisers.

“Bears are easy, grizzlies, not so good,” he said. “It seems llamas or alpacas get away every couple of months here.”

But Saturday was the first time Beales had seen a marsupial in B.C. and his first time dealing with one. Beales said he was “kicking himself after” for not taking photographs.

CTV News spoke with the wallaby’s owners and have reported that it’s a female named Gracie.

Wallabies and kangaroos are found naturally only in Australia and Papua New Guinea.