Police officer tackles runaway pig wreaking havoc in neighbourhood

A police officer on shift had the not-so-typical task of chasing and tackling a pig and footage of the encounter has since gone viral.

The Grantsville City Police Department in Utah posted to Facebook the challenge one of their officers had of chasing after the runaway hog.

Darting in different directions, the hog was keen to make a getaway but the officer wasn't having any of it as he jumped to the ground, using his whole body to tackle the animal.

"Pig situation handled. #onlyingrantsville," the police department wrote as the video caption.

On Facebook, the original video has received 2m views, 58,000 likes, and thousands of comments, while the video also went viral on TikTok were it has received 22m views, 2.9m likes, and over 51,000 comments.

Viewers expressed their amusement at the police-pig chase.

One person said: "That officer needs a raise. Maybe he should put in for the NFL with that tackle."

"That was really funny but seriously though he did a really great job," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "Bet when he joined the force, he never thought of this situation."

"This is by far the best thing I’ve seen today," a fourth person commented.

Meanwhile, in a previous Facebook post, the police department warned the owner of the pigs to capture them immediately.

“If you are missing some hogs in the area of 700 S Quirk St. They are running at large,

“The city is going to try and trap them which could be done at the owner’s expense. So please, if they are yours try and collect them as soon as possible.”

It turns out the pig was one of two that were running on the loose in the area, the police reported Tuesday (April 2), as per local news outlet 2KUTV.

So far, no owner has come forward to claim the pair of pigs that have since been caught and have been taken to a local animal rescue.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.