The Hayward Police Department received an odd early morning call yesterday from a concerned citizen reporting that he or she had come across a baby seal flopping around the bushes of an office park. Police, skeptical that a seal could make it across Interstate 880, told the caller they were likely mistaken, but headed over anyway.

Well it turns out that the caller was not mistaken, and police officers soon had a malnourished baby seal on their hands.

In a post to its Facebook page, a member of the Hayward Police Department detailed the scene.

"A seal in Hayward? This morning a little before 6 AM, someone called from Sandoval Way to report a baby seal flopping around in the bushes at a business," notes the post. "Sometimes when people call to report an incident, the things they are telling us aren't exactly what is occurring, after all how could a seal come from the water, cross I-880 and be on the east side of Hayward?"

All good questions, but, if not a seal, then what did they suspect was really creeping around those office park bushes?

"We were thinking it was probably a possum or weird cat but the caller insisted it was a seal," the police explain. (Wait, a weird cat? What?) "Well lo and behold it was a seal!"

The Marine Mammal Center, reports ABC 7, sent a rescuer to pick up the seal and in the process determined that this wasn't the first time the organization had encountered this free-ranging fellow.

The center identified the seal as a northern seal fur pup, and noted that he had already been given an ID tag by the organization when he was picked up last Novembeer. Oh yeah, and they named him "Pipester."

In a November press release last year, The Marine Mammal Center wrote that 2015 was a bad year for northern fur seal pups, having already rescued 85 of them — "more than double [the] previous record in 2006, with more arriving every day."

Pipester is set to be examined today by veterinarians, and will be released back into the wild again at some point in the near future. We wish the little fellow the best of luck.

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