Multiple 911 callers summoned the California Highway Patrol to an Oakland-area freeway Wednesday on reports of at least two dead kangaroos, but responding officers found that the deceased animals were far less exotic in nature.
Bay City News reports that a 911 caller reported a dead kangaroo by the side of Interstate 580 "near Golf Links Road, just down the hill from the Oakland Zoo" Wednesday. When CHP arrived, however, they instead found a far more common type of dead animal.
Reports of a kangaroo on I-580 were false. Said marsupial was actually an enormous raccoon. Raccoon was removed by CHP Motor Officer Coffman
— CHP Oakland (@CHPoakland) August 2, 2017
And by "enormous," they mean "about 25 pounds," CHP spokesperson Officer Matthew Hamer tells the Chron. According to a separate report from SF Gate, "A CHP officer dutifully scraped the fallen coon from the asphalt and delivered it to the local morgue for a proper roadkill sendoff."
A second caller also reported a dead kangaroo on the other side of the same stretch of road. That late creature was a deer, (warning: bloody photo) the CHP tweeted, saying "Found another reported kangaroo on other side of I-580. This one was a fawn. [Caltrans] cleared Bambi from the roadway. Real heroes."
“If you’re driving down the freeway and you see something this big, with the Oakland Zoo so close, it’s easy to make the connection,” Hamer told the Chron. However, according to Oakland Zoo spokesperson Erin Harrison, who spoke with BCN, "the zoo does not have any kangaroos in its exhibits, but does have a group of wallaroos, a smaller marsupial."
"I checked with animal management, all of our wallaroos are accounted for," Harrison told BCN. Hamer confirms that the animals were not any kind of marsupial, telling the Chron that “We were able to determine immediately that they were not kangaroos, but we were face-to-face with them, not driving by.”