Wall-E the Wallaby's Walkabout

Grand Prairie, Texas, police catch wandering wallaby in residential neighborhood

The Grand Prairie Police Department gets interesting 911 calls, but this one will be talked about for days.

Police in the Dallas suburb received a 911 call just before 7:45 a.m. Friday about a kangaroo hopping westbound in the 2200 block of Prince John Drive.

Officers arrived but didn't catch a kangaroo -- the animal was, in fact, a wallaby.

"I have been doing this for 20 years, and I will probably never see something like this again," Detective Lyle Gensler said.

John Richardson, the 911 caller, sent NBC 5 DFW a photo of the Wall-E the wallaby sitting at his front door.

Grand Prairie police said the wallaby was very excited, saying officers had a hard time controlling him while they waited for animal control to arrive. When asked how he knew how to catch a wallaby, Charles Munoz, the animal control officer, replied "Animal Planet" with a laugh.

The wallaby had tags and was returned to his owner unharmed.

"As far as we know, we don't have anything in our city ordinance that says you can't have one, “ said Danielle Tate, animal services manager.

Wall-E's owners came to get him from animal control after friends saw on social media that he was loose. Their son-in-law said they believe someone tried to steal Wall-E because their fence was ripped.

Jessica Churchill, the owners' daughter, said her father gave the wallaby to her mother for Christmas after she said she wanted a kangaroo someday.

NBC 5's Julie Fine contributed to this report.

Contact Us