Escaped llama back home after hilarious police chase

ATHENS, Ga. — A llama briefly went on the llam Wednesday in Georgia.

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Authorities in Athens, Georgia, have been inundated with phone calls from the pesky press. Chief Deputy Lee Weems posted a lengthy and rather humorous recap of the story on Facebook, which has an incredible twist and a happy ending.

"Around 4 p.m., dispatch notified me that someone had reported 'a baby camel' running loose in Epps Bridge Road. Our deputies are not trained in South American camelid identification, but they quickly determined that the animal in question was actually a llama.

Deputies, with the assistance of several llama experts who just happened to be traveling on Epps Bridge Road at that exact moment, managed to corral the llama in the dumpster area behind the Cook Out (fast food resturant). We would also like to thank the good folks at Cook Out for providing a bag of carrots to help lure the llama into the dumpster area.

Contact was made with the llama's owner (thanks to new County Commission Chairman John Daniell who had his phone number), and the owner's son came to the scene with a van and hauled the llama home. The llama belongs to a resident of Oconee County. We do not know at this time whether it just wanted to go for a stroll or if it was concerned about the weather forecast this weekend and was attempting to buy bread and milk. I asked, but it refused to answer questions. Perhaps this is because I don't speak Spanish nor any of the native Peruvian languages.We would like to thank the folks at Southeast Llama Rescue who were on the way to get the llama prior to our locating its owner."

The chief deputy seemed amused at all the media interest, deadpanning, “Based upon the number of media outlets that are calling about the llama, I can only surmise that President-elect Trump must not have tweeted anything, so, now they are scrambling for a story.”

Cox Media Group