Escaped emu leads police on wild, 20 mile chase through Tennessee town: video

MeeMoo the emu can sure move.

A pet emu led police on a wild, 20-mile chase through a Tennessee town on Wednesday — clocking in at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour — only to bust out of his enclosure again on Thursday.

Roane County resident Harry McKinney said one of his family’s two emus, MeeMoo, broke loose from their farm after he was spooked by workers logging behind his home.

The big bird hopped his 7-foot fence and took off running through the town of Harriman.

McKinney tried to follow MeeMoo, but soon lost sight of the flightless bird, he told WATE.

He posted on social media about his missing Emu, and his inbox was soon flooded with messages from residents who had spotted the bird running through their neighborhood.

The Harriman Police Department got involved after McKinney passed along the tips he’d received of MeeMoo’s latest location. The bizarre police chase that ensued quickly became a town-wide spectacle.

Steven McDaniel snapped a video of four police cars tailing the bird.

“Cop cars just, blue lights going, going right in front of my house about three miles an hour,” McDaniel told WATE. “Then one of the cops stopped next door and talked to the guy next door and the guy just started like… laughing hysterically, I could hear him from my house.”

McDaniel said the chase caught the attention of customers at a nearby restaurant, who stepped outside to watch. He said at one point the emu appeared to be going 20 mph.

According to McKinney, Harriman Police told him that officers clocked MeeMoo’s speed at 40 mph.

McKinney was able to get MeeMoo from a Victorian home in Roane County and wrangled him into a truck with the help of “a great friend,” he posted on Facebook.

“We were terrified that he would get hit by a car and somebody would hit him with a tranquilizer dart, that he would hurt himself in the chase,” he told WATE.

In another Facebook post on Thursday, McKinney said MeeMoo the emu escaped the reinforced fence, but he was back home in an hour.

McKinney has since raised the fence to 9-feet, he said.

He said that he thinks the viral chase was a good bit of light news for the community.

“There’s been a lot of comments about just how, how funny it was and you know, everybody’s wanting to meet the emu now… couple minutes of life that was… it was well worth it just to take a little video, you know,” McDaniel said.

Roane State Community College jokingly offered the now famous bird a job.

“If MeeMoo is looking for work as a college mascot, someone have him reach out to us please. #RoaneStateEmus,” the college tweeted.

According to the Smithsonian Institute, Emus are the largest bird in the world after their cousin, the ostrich, typically measuring around 5-feet-8 and weighing in around 110 to130 pounds.