Pet emu escapes home, evades Massachusetts police for hours

Free bird! 

A wicked pet emu ran the coop in Massachusetts, causing an hours-long police chase to ensue, WCVB reported.

The flightless bird, which is native to Australia and related to the ostrich, escaped from its home in East Bridgewater, just south of Boston, by jumping over a 6-foot fence.

“They can do about 35 (miles per hour), so she was flying,” the bird’s owner, Lee Flaherty, told the news outlet. “She ran all the way up to an intersection and then cut into a field. I got up to her in the field and was walking with her and she wouldn’t come. She was terrified.”

Flaherty suspects that a wild animal may have caused the bird, named Mallory, to make the leap. 

The emu twisted and turned through neighboring Brockton for more than three hours, crossing intersections and running next to cars until Flaherty and a bystander finally caught Mallory in a shopping center parking lot. 

Mallory was brought back to her pen after her long journey to reconnect with her companion, Mickey, WCVB reported. 

Flaherty said the emu had sustained a minor leg injury from her adventure, but would be okay.