McALLEN — Are you missing your alpaca? Or maybe your llama?
No one seems to be 100% sure on the genus, but in either case, you’ve lost the animal in the photo. He was apprehended by police under the McHi water tower Monday and collected by one of the county’s cowboys.
The (likely) alpaca was spotted in the middle of the road in the 1700 block of Redwood Ave. just before 6 p.m. Monday and ultimately corralled by police and good Samaritans a little under a mile away, across the road from McAllen ISD’s central administration building.
There’s some uncertainty over the precise nature of the beast. McAllen police tentatively identified it as a llama. Based on pictures, Gladys Porter Zoo personnel think it’s an alpaca.
Regardless, the animal caused quite the ruckus before it was apprehended.
After being spotted, the animal made tracks along Tamarack Ave., passing by a McHi baseball practice that was just ending.
“I was going back to my vehicle and I looked to my left and there was a llama just running,” junior third baseman Maximus Villareal said matter-of-factly Monday evening. “Didn’t really expect it. It was really the highlight of my day.”
Players, parents and police officers gave chase, said Rey Ramos, McHi baseball booster president and amateur llama-wrangler.
“It was LlamaFit,” he said. “Like CrossFit, but with a llama.”
Ramos described police boxing in the animal with cars while people — some with makeshift lariats — hazed the creature, keeping it from trotting into traffic on 23rd St.
Eventually, a ring of people — many of them uniformed baseball players — surrounded the animal. Ramos said it was pushed into the fencing under the water tower and contained.
“I think McAllen’s finest did a really good job of wrangling that thing up,” he said.
Ramos joked that the creature probably “herd” the baseball team was having tryouts. He said he doubts it’ll be replacing the team’s Bulldog as mascot, but noted his relief that the animal stayed off the baseball field proper.
Some sort of concession stand combo, Ramos mused, might need a memorial llama-themed namesake to mark the occasion — which he said was genuinely heartwarming.
“It was nice to see everyone not just standing around shooting videos,” he said. “There were a lot of people who were helping.”
The chief unanswered question is how an alpaca (or llama) came to be running wild right smack-dab in the middle of the city of McAllen.
Authorities had no answer on that Monday evening, or any information on the animal’s owner.
Just before 7:30 p.m., the animal was safely nestled in a goose neck trailer being backed onto Tamarack while two police officers looked on.
It appeared in good health. It did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s a very interesting story,” McAllen police spokesman Lt. Joel Morales said.
Has the department ever before apprehended a llama?
“To the best of my knowledge, no,” Morales said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, it wasn’t immediately clear whether the llama — or alpaca — had been reunited with its owner.
Read the latest update here:
McHi alpaca keeping a low profile after being claimed, returned to owner
