Once in a while, a small town experiences an event so unique that it becomes the talk of the town for years to come. For the small city of Harriman, Tenn., that event began with a police chase.
But the chase wasn’t for some thief, or even a human being.
It was for a giant emu named MeeMoo.
Harry McKinney, a software programmer, had helped hatch MeeMoo five years ago when a local hatchery’s incubator broke. McKinney said raising the emu, along with his sheep, turkeys and ducks, is often a joy. Though, it helps, he said, when MeeMoo stays in his enclosure.
The runaway emu. Photo by Steven McDaniel
However, on the day in question, MeeMoo escaped from his enclosure after a nearby logging crew spooked him, causing him to jump over his seven-foot fence. McKinney tried to catch up to him after the escape, but soon lost sight of the speedy bird.
So we were, like, chasing him all around, trying to get him to come back,” McKinney said. “But it was like chasing a roadrunner.”
Unable to find the emu, McKinney turned to social media to alert his community that MeeMoo was on the loose, and law enforcement soon got involved.
“Immediately we were flooded with private messages with, you know, ‘Hey, your emu is in my backyard,’ and then we got all of these videos,” McKinney told local news outlet WATE.
The police followed the emu through the city, with residents keeping an eye out for MeeMoo and reporting sightings to the police. The chase went on for hours, with the emu running at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
Steven McDaniel, a resident of the town, captured a video of the emu’s chase that went viral on social media, showing the sight of four police cruisers slowly driving behind the emu to capture the bird.
The chase finally ended when the officers cornered MeeMoo near a local home surrounded by hedges. McKinney was enlisted to end the pursuit, calling his pet emu back to safety.
The runaway emu. Photo by Steven McDaniel
“I whistled, and he realized that dad was there,” McKinney said. “And I went up, and I gave him a big hug.”
During the seven hour and 20 mile search, most in town seemed bemused by the experience.
“He just would hold its feathers like hold its wings straight out and come at you like ‘oh gosh, did it get mad or what,'” said Harriman police chief, Baron Tapp.
While McKinney spoke affectionately about MeeMoo, he conceded that the emu could be intimidating.
“For us, he’s like a dog,” he said.
But for people that had never seen any emus before, it was a T-Rex coming down the sidewalk at them.”
McKinney was grateful for the community’s help in getting MeeMoo back home safely. He shared a photo of himself and the now-famous emu, both smiling when the chase finally came to an end and they were headed back home. And he promises to make sure MeeMoo’s enclosure gets a 2-foot increase in height to keep the emu from jumping out again.
Harry McKinney took a selfie with his emu after it led police on a slow-speed chase.
Tapp said the entire event was a ‘good time’ for the community. And it was needed.
“We’ve had a lot of stuff going on here in Tennessee – the shootings in Nashville – we’ve had a couple of shootings here…,” McDaniel said. “It’s been a great thing for us as a community to be able to have a couple days [that bring] a smile on your face instead of just heartbreak.”
Watch the one-of-a-kind chase below.
