BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A goat that eluded Alabama authorities for nearly a week was finally baaaack in custody on Sunday.
The animal, who has been dubbed “Billy the Kid” by Birmingham residents, managed to escape from a pickup truck on July 17, WTVM reported.
The wily goat was on the lam for a week, with an elusiveness that might catch the eye of University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
But the animal was finally caught before reaching Tuscaloosa. On its Facebook page, Levite Jewish Community Center wrote that “after an hourlong pursuit around the LJCC campus, staff and members helped Billy the Goat’s owner peacefully apprehend the handsome-but-wiley (sic) fugitive.”
The post added that the goat, “is now back in the hands of his owner,” Obed Kameta, 31, a truck driver from nearby Calera, AL.com reported.
The goat escaped after Kameta paid $300 to a seller he had previously bought goats from, according to the news outlet.
“When I met him, we made the transaction and I put (the goat) into my truck,” Kameta told AL.com on Friday.
But the goat got loose.
Since then, citizens in Birmingham and the surrounding areas of Mountain Brook and Crestline saw the wayward goat but could not catch him, WTVM reported.
There was a close call in Mountain Brook when a shirtless man dived at the goat but only grabbed air like a frustrated defensive tackle, AL.com reported. Other people caught the goat on two separate occasions, but he managed to escape again, according to the news outlet.
The Levite Jewish Community Center’s Facebook page had dozens of comments, with at least one poster using the hashtag #freebilly.
“Bless his heart. I imagine he’s exhausted,” another poster wrote.