Jackson officer stops chicken's free range

JACKSON, Mo. -- An errant chicken was behind bars Wednesday after trespassing on private property.

A resident on Woodland Drive reported the black and white hen after it walked up Woodland Street from the Shawnee Drive area and stopped in her driveway.

Sgt. Steve Green of the Jackson Police Department was called to round up the stray bird.

"I got to chase it around like Rocky Balboa," he said. Other officers cheered him on like the boxer's trainer in the movie, shouting "You got to be like greased lightning!"

Squawking but unharmed the bird tired out before Green did and hid under a car where the officer was able to apprehend it. He suspects the hen is someone's pet.

Green said it was his first chicken run. "It breaks up the monotony of a stressful day," he said.

The homeowner who called the police loaned the officer a pet taxi to transport the chicken to the city pound.

Anyone with information about the lost chicken should call Jackson police at 243-3151.