North Ridgeville Police Department had a rather unusual inmate over the weekend. A stalking pig. That's right, a pig.

So, how did a hog end up behind bars?

On Saturday, staff received a 911 call from a distressed man who was on his route home. According to the man, he was being stalked by a rogue farm animal and was at loss as to what to do about the situation.

It was 5.26am local time and so, naturally, the officers on shift assumed the man was coming back from a night out possibly a little worse for wear and, most probably, hallucinating the entire encounter. 

But, to their surprise, the police arrived at the scene to find a "very sober male" walking not from a bar but from a nearby Amtrak station. And yes, he was indeed being closely followed by a pig.

Staff had to "wrangle" the free-spirited animal into the back of a police cruiser, which at the very least made for an excellent photo op. Back at the station, the rascal was held in one of the "pig pens" (aka a dog kennel) until officers could return her to her rightful owner. 

Of course, the entire episode was too good not to share on Facebook. But before you make any pig/police jokes, appreciate that it's already been noted.

“Also, we will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard,” the department explains in the Facebook post.

This is not the first time a misbehaving animal has ended up in police custody. In the past, honey-stealing bears, stalking squirrels, jail-breaking felines, donkeys accused of GBH, and a monkey that threatened children with bricks have been arrested and sent to jail. In fact, the North Ridgeville police department had its own exotic visitor in 2015, when a roo made its escape from a nearby menagerie. 

"You’d have thought we would have learned our lesson after the kangaroo incident," the department said. 

In case you're wondering what has happened to the pig since the arrest, she has been released and sent home. And as for her identity, NPR reports she is a 50-pound swine called Zoey.