For a brief moment this afternoon, the nation’s hearts and minds were focused on Sun City, Arizona, where a local ABC affiliate brought us live aerial footage of two escaped llamas leading a wild police chase through the Phoenix suburb.
All across America, newsrooms stood still. Stories were disregarded. There were llamas on the loose.
The good citizens of Sun City tried to help, to no avail.
LLAMA WATCH: Residents chasing after llamas on golf carts and on foot. WATCH LIVE: http://t.co/wsQoRGGcfI pic.twitter.com/cwUUWIDB6S
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) February 26, 2015
LLAMA WATCH: A man in a truck just tried to stop the llamas. They got away. WATCH LIVE: http://t.co/wsQoRGGcfI pic.twitter.com/W8Kl1y8k3I
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) February 26, 2015
The animals ran through a variety of terrain, stopped traffic, and escaped capture several times even when they appeared to be cornered.
While the chase occurred, our nation’s publications struggled to dedicate enough resources for this breaking story.
The Reporter-to-Llama Ratio: 2.5-to-1. Seems reasonable. pic.twitter.com/xbKEZx5yO8 (h/t @JuddLegum)
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) February 26, 2015
.@MarkMemmottNPR, our standards editor at NPR, just counseled us that it's "alleged llamas" at this point. "They could be alpacas," he said.
— Gene Demby (@GeeDee215) February 26, 2015
And the Pulitzer for llama coverage goes to… Buzzfeed! pic.twitter.com/vhijVFM2DQ
— Kevin Slane (@kslane) February 26, 2015
But in the end, both were captured without incident.
Here’s hoping the llamas don’t face the furious backlash that haunted Balloon Boy in 2009.
Either way, the escaped llamas of Arizona provided easily the most thrilling chase since the Lowell Goat’s month on the lam.
