An Escaped Goat Held the Residents of a Portland Group Home Hostage

The goat began charging and head-butting the residents, who barricaded themselves in a room and called 911.

Prince. IMAGE: Courtesy of KATU.
By Shannon Gormley

Yesterday, the residents of a Northeast Portland group home were besieged by an unexpected visitor—a stray, aggressive goat.

As first reported by WW's news partners KATU, a goat named Prince escaped from a nearby family farm in the Parkrose neighborhood.

When Charles Roberts, a resident of a nearby group home, saw Prince wandering a busy street, he decided to bring the furry, brown bovidae indoors for safekeeping.

Apparently, Prince wasn't exactly grateful about getting rescued.

The goat began charging and head-butting the residents, who barricaded themselves in a room and called 911.

"Being a police officer for 20 years, you see and go to a lot of calls, and see a lot of crazy things, but when I first saw this, and heard it on the radio, I didn't think it was real," Eric Zajac of the Portland Police Bureau told KATU. "We thought somebody was a little intoxicated, maybe had a little too much."

Zajac and the other responding officers escorted Prince off the premises using restraints as a makeshift leash. He was taken to nearby Rossi Farms until his owners were able to pick him up.

It's not the first time Portland residents have gone viral for  being menaced by an angry animal.

In 2014, a local couple were trapped in their bedroom by their cat after the 22-pound, hostile Himalayan scratched the family's 7-month old infant. The family's resulting 911 call made it into news outlets as far away as the UK.

Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that Prince belongs to Rossi Farms. 

Related: A Lost Sea Lion Was Found Blocking a Rural Road in Washington State Yesterday.

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