Trooper hog ties escaped pig with — wait for it — tape measure in TN, photos show
.jpg "A trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol used his tape measure to hog tie an escaped pig on Interstate 40 on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.")
A pig on the lam hog jammed traffic along a busy Tennessee interstate before a quick-thinking state trooper stepped in to help, according to highway patrol officials.
But with few farm animal-wrangling instruments on hand, the trooper with Tennessee Highway Patrol in Knoxville had to get creative.
“No lasso, no problem,” Highway Patrol tweeted on Wednesday, April 13, after the incident. “He hog tied it with his tape measure.”
A series of photographs shared with the tweet show the trooper — identified as “Trooper Coker” — with his giant industrial tape measure on the ground and several feet of tape wrapped around the belly of a large black pig.
Highway Patrol said the animal was “running loose” in the westbound lanes of Interstate 40 near mile marker 371, which is several miles west of the center of Knoxville.
Representatives from state Highway Patrol didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for additional information on Friday, April 15.
Coker, who reportedly has little experience with farm animals, called himself an “unregistered, uncertified farmhand” in an interview with the TV station WATE.
He said what knowledge he has of wrangling pigs came from the television shows “Yellowstone” and “1883,” WATE reported. According to IMDb, the two series center on Montana ranchers and a family traveling through the Wild West, respectively.
Officials told the TV station the pig’s name is Calhoun, but it wasn’t immediately revealed where he belonged — or how he ended up on the interstate.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Trooper hog ties escaped pig with — wait for it — tape measure in TN, photos show."
