The Anatomy Of Catching A Pig In Woodbury

It took about half an hour to catch a pig that got loose on Woodbury streets on Feb. 4.

Patch recently contacted Corey Andress—the community service officer who helped wrangle the the day before Super Bowl Sunday—and Daniel Nelson, a Woodbury resident who helped and told his story through a blog post.

Andress said it would have been much more difficult to corral the pig without the help of two citizens.

“They had rope and gloves and everything,” Andress said. “I think they were hunters or something.”

On Feb. 4, the received a call about the pig, which police thought was either . It was later claimed by its owner at the .

“It was a first,” said Andress, who has been a CSO with Woodbury since October 2010. “It was very interesting.”

Daniel Nelson, one of the citizens who helped catch the pig, pointed Patch to a blog post called “Coming to a Pork in the Road.”

“I was baffled by the sight of an animal so clearly out of its element, so like anyone suddenly faced with an unexpected and incomprehensible sight, I proceeded to go about my business,” Nelson wrote.

He made a U-turn and went back, and he helped keep the pig in a grassy area near the intersection of Springhill Drive and Tamarack Road, where the pig reportedly got loose from the back of a pickup truck.

“Having not been raised on a farm, I now know the full meaning of ‘squealed like a pig,’” Nelson wrote.

Andress, who grew up in St. Paul, said he had a couple of dogs as family pets. “Definitely no pigs,” he said.

He said he used a “catch pole” to initially secure the pig, but it broke free. He eventually recaptured the animal and the residents helped him get it back into a blue barrel and loaded into the back of his police vehicle.

Andress said the citizens were “appalled” by the incident.

“‘What is this, a movie?’” he recalled them saying.

Nelson, in the blog post, said the CSO’s first words to them were: “Is this your pig?”

A plan was hatched with Andress and a man named Joe, the other resident involved.

“The CSO would use his catch pole to direct the pig into the barrel, door held open by Joe, while I pushed. It took a little effort on everyone’s part, but we were able to walk the pig in and then stand the barrel upright, thus preventing the ham from escaping,” Nelson wrote in the guest blog post. “After using some rope to secure the door once again, we asked the CSO to go get his truck. With three of us lifting, we were able to ‘load ‘er up’ and secure the barrel in the back of the CSO’s pickup. Joe and I then returned to our lives, as the CSO and pig headed into whatever process suburban Woodbury has for handling stray farm animals.”

Ultimately, though, it was not a pleasant outcome for the pig.

“It’s a feeder pig, so it doesn't have the brightest future,” Andress said.

Check out , and a piece from the Pioneer Press about what happened to it.