Representational image. (AFP)
When Urim Osmani opened his auto repair shop in Staten Island on Saturday morning, he was not surprised to see a tawny animal crouching nearby.
"At first it looked like a small deer," Osmani said, adding that deer from the woods nearby sometimes had wandered close to his shop.
Then the animal reared on its hind legs and started hopping around in a parking lot near Victory Boulevard. Osmani realized it was a kangaroo.
He said he and his brother were not frightened - the 1 1/2-year-old male stood only 3 feet tall and weighed 22 pounds, the police said.
"It was running around like crazy, and we didn't want it to get hit by a car," Osmani said.
Detective Sophia Mason said that officers arrived at 8:36 and that the kangaroo, named Buster, was "taken into custody without incident" after 10 to 15 minutes. The animal was returned to his owner. Mason said she could not confirm the owner's name because he had not been arrested.
The detective said that the kangaroo had escaped from a fenced-in yard on Victory Boulevard and Travis Avenue but that he had not leapt over the fence. "Someone left the gate unlocked, and he was able to get loose," she said.
The house from which Buster escaped was registered to Giovanni Schirripa and two other people with the same last name. This was not the first time an exotic animal had escaped after Schirripa's gate was left open. In 2012, a pony named Casper and a zebra named Razzi ambled out of his yard. At the time, Schirripa said it was Casper's third escape.
It is illegal to keep a kangaroo or any other marsupial in New York City, unless the animal is at a zoo, laboratory or veterinary hospital or in a circus.
Osmani said that he had heard about the zebra but that this was his first encounter with a kangaroo. Buster seemed to be having fun, he said.
"He was jumping around, running around, very fast," Osmani said. "Enjoying the freedom."
© 2015, The New York Times News Service