No Kangaroos, Just a Giant Raccoon On The Freeway

OAKLAND, CA — The CHP and Caltrans have been busy with dead animal calls today, and the CHP's social media writer has been having fun with the reports

The first call was for a dead kangaroo on I-580. What?

CHP-Oakland reported on Facebook, "Reports of a kangaroo on I-580 were false. Said marsupial was actually an enormous raccoon. Raccoon was removed by CHP Motor Officer Coffman. Seriously, I've never seen a raccoon of that size."

Readers were quick to jump in with their comments. Anthony Fagen reported, "I saw one the other evening near I680S and SR24 in Walnut Creek. Agree. Looked like something on steroids; was that big."

While Euge Lee responded, "this is absolutely what i needed on a day like today."

The raccoon was near Golf Links Road, just down the hill from the Oakland Zoo. Oakland Zoo spokeswoman Erin Harrison noted that the zoo does not have any kangaroos in its exhibits, but does have a group of wallaroos, a smaller marsupial. "I checked with animal management, all of our wallaroos are accounted for," Harrison said.

Plenty of readers were unhappy that there wasn't a photo. It was probably not very cute after being run over.

But the CHP social media writer wasn't finished, turning to Twitter for the next post:

Judging by the blood, it was a good call to not show us the animals.

— Bay City News contributed to this report; Image by Renee Schiavone, Patch

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