Chasing a loose kangaroo is getting to be part of the job for police in a southwestern Colorado city.
Irwin, the pet kangaroo, wasn't difficult to nab when he got loose last fall in Durango. Still quite young at the time, he leaped into a bag similar to a mother kangaroo's pouch.
On Monday, Irwin got loose again. A police caller was worried he might get hit by a car.
This time, Irwin had grown too big for a bag.
''That technique wasn't going to work. The officers were debating whether they needed to lasso it or what the plan was,'' police Cmdr. Nick Stasi said Tuesday.
Officer Shane Garrison — described by Stasi as a ''farm boy'' with animal-handling experience — figured it out after following Irwin down an alley and into a backyard.
Irwin was still small enough, about as big as a medium-sized dog, for Garrison to corner him near a house, sneak up close and grab him. He carried the kangaroo to a police truck's back seat and shut the door, as seen in a different officer's body camera video.
Kangaroos are among the unusual but legal animals to keep in Colorado.
