After an exhausting dash through town, ‘criminal’ goat checks into La Quinta Inn
A goat on the lam over the weekend in a Massachusetts town got caught after he “checked into” a La Quinta Inn.
Hotel security cameras captured him wandering the halls about 4:30 a.m. Monday like a bachelor party guest who couldn’t find his room.
Police in Auburn, Mass., detailed the animal’s travels in a Facebook post Wednesday, where they also posted the hotel’s surveillance video.
They began getting calls about the runaway roaming the town about 6 a.m. Friday.
The animal’s owner, pig farmer Peter Blash, told CBS in Boston that the animal — known as goat No. 448 — escaped by jumping a 5-foot fence at his farm in Millbury, Mass., about five miles from Auburn.
“They take off like a bullet,” Blash said. “When he took off, he took off like a criminal.”
No. 488 covered a lot of territory on the run.
People saw him on this road, that drive, this avenue, that street, and Route 20. Calls to police poured in during the day and evening shifts on Saturday.
“Early Sunday morning, the mischievous runaway farm animal was spotted getting either on or off Route 290 at exit 9,” the department reported.
“By 10am, the goat had made its’ way to the Swanson Road School; somehow still evading capture.
“Finally, at about 430am Monday, the goat had wrapped up its’ tour of #Auburn and strutted into the La Quinta Hotel on Southbridge Street (presumably to rest a bit), where it was finally taken into ‘custody’ and returned to its’ owner, Peter Blash of the Blash Pig Farm in Millbury.”
Police managed to wrangle the goat at the hotel.
True to the meaning of La Quinta — which means “the fifth” in Spanish — the goat bleated the fifth and gave up no incriminating information.
“As it turns out, Tom Brady was not the only goat running wild this past weekend,” Auburn police noted in its Facebook report.
This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 11:52 AM with the headline "After an exhausting dash through town, ‘criminal’ goat checks into La Quinta Inn."