Kangaroo gets loose in NYC neighborhood

MotoGP rider Yonny Hernandez of Columbia feeds an eastern grey kangaroo joey during a visit to Maru Koala and Animal Park ahead of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. MotoGP rider Yonny Hernandez of Columbia feeds an eastern grey kangaroo joey during a visit to Maru Koala and Animal Park ahead of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015.

By Associated Press October 17, 2015 2 min read

NEW YORK – A pet kangaroo named Buster caused a brief stir on Saturday morning when it got loose in a New York City neighborhood.

Witnesses first spotted the runaway marsupial in the parking lot of a Staten Island auto repair shop at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

Shop owner Urim Osmani said when he arrived for work, he saw Buster kneeling down about 20 feet away. He assumed it was a deer from a nearby wildlife refuge.

“Then he stood up,” Osmani said. “I said, ‘What’s a kangaroo doing on Staten Island?'”

Police officers responding to a 911 call were able to locate Buster’s owner at a nearby home. Police said the man retrieved his kangaroo, saying it had hopped away from a friend’s fenced backyard about 15 minutes earlier after a gate was accidentally left open.