ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
It was an unusual 911 call that tipped off authorities in Durango, Colorado.
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UNIDENTIFIED 911 CALLER: So I know this is going to sound completely insane, but there is, like, a baby kangaroo with a diaper on, like, wandering around Main Street.
SHAPIRO: That call came in last year. Irwin, a pet kangaroo, was on the loose.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Police footage of the 2024 escape shows Durango officers in hot pursuit of the diaper-wearing marsupial, trying to figure out the best way to catch the young kangaroo.
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UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #1: (Laughter) Do we - come here (laughter). We're your mommy.
KELLY: Patrol Commander Nick Stasi remembers the escape last fall.
NICK STASI: We were able to locate the owner that day, and he came out with a jacket and held it up as a sort of pouch, and the kangaroo, at that time, just naturally climbed into the pouch because that's its natural instinct.
SHAPIRO: Kangaroos like Irwin are legal to own in Colorado, but an escaped one is probably not that common.
STASI: I have never heard another story of a police department capturing a kangaroo once, let alone capturing a kangaroo twice.
KELLY: Yes, twice. Irwin is a repeat offender. This week, Irwin evaded captivity again, and he was not the same little joey.
SHANE GARRISON: But when we all got on scene, we kind of realized that the kangaroo was a lot bigger than it used to be. So we just decided to kind of try and corner it rather than put it in a blanket.
KELLY: Shane Garrison has been a Durango P.D. officer for three years. He took the call early Monday morning.
GARRISON: Dispatch had said that there was a hazardous call that had popped up and that there's a kangaroo loose running down College Drive. And my sergeant had notified me about the call, and I was kind of excited for it.
KELLY: Bodycam footage from responding officers shows Irwin hopping across a parking lot as Garrison locates him.
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GARRISON: I knew it would be bigger, too. It's not the same size anymore, man. That was, like, a year ago.
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #2: That's crazy.
GARRISON: It's gotten big for a pouch now, you think?
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #2: (Laughter).
GARRISON: You know, we were all kind of just excited to be able to actually hold and see a kangaroo. That was my first time seeing one in person, not even at a zoo or anything like that.
SHAPIRO: Officers tried to use their vehicles and their bodies to corral the kangaroo behind a house, hoping to get the jump on him, but Garrison secured Irwin bare-handed.
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UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #2: Got it?
GARRISON: I got it. Yep.
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER #2: Hi, buddy. Here you go.
GARRISON: Yeah, no, my first thought when I grabbed him was, you know, he was definitely soft. Well, I was also worried about him kicking and possibly, you know, headbutting me or me dropping him, so I was just really focused on holding his legs and his front arms.
SHAPIRO: Detained by police, Irwin was given first-class accommodations in the back of a Durango police cruiser.
KELLY: Garrison, by the way, was nicknamed Cowboy by his fellow officers after the capture. He says Irwin was safely returned home, and Irwin's owner verifies that the kangaroo, hopped up with the taste of freedom, was named after down-under animal lover, the late Steve Irwin.
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