Horrified man calls cops after being chased by baby squirrel 'looking for a new mother'
Usually, when people call the authorities, there tends to be an emergency or a situation which requires assistance. However, for one man in Germany, the emergency call was humoros. In the German city of Karlsruhe, a man called and told the authorities: "Help, I’m being chased by a squirrel". Officers then arrived at the man's home to rescue him from a clingy baby squirrel that he was desperately trying to evade.
Officers arrived at the scene of the incident after they were called by the man at around 8 am on August 9. According to the Facebook page of the police department, the officers "sent a patrol to investigate the matter" almost immediately after they received the call.
The post on the social media website added: "In fact, the police there met the man being persecuted by the stubborn little creature." The police officers were reported to have warmed up the sickly looking animal and posted that it had now become the "new mascot" of the department after they "baptized it in the name of Karl-Friedrich", Daily Mail reported.
The police added that the animal was so exhausted from chasing the terrified man around the home that it "fell asleep because of the horror". Karl-Friedrich, the squirrel, has been "taken into police custody" and the staff there looked for accommodation for the small creature "which apparently was looking for a new mother".
The post added: "The animal is now in an animal rescue center and is well looked after. We wish the little one all the best!" The spokesperson for the police, Christina Krenz, told the Guardian in an interview that the baby squirrel had become obsessed with the man because it had been looking for a new home. She added: "It often happens that squirrels which have lost their mothers look for a replacement and then focus their efforts on one person."
Baby squirrels who have just lost their mothers and their nests are believed to be "very persistent, not just running behind someone but being entirely fixated on them". Krenz added: "The man didn’t know what to do and so he called the police – he was certainly feeling a bit threatened."
Karlsruhe is called a "green city" and it has more than 1,000 hectares of public parks, lakes, and small forests. Being the kind of place that it is, it is no wonder that a baby squirrel walked into a man's home and tried to pester him to be its mother.