A family spend an evening trying to round-up a rogue donkey after it was found running through the streets of Horley .
Emily Booth and her boyfriend Matt Drief were driving between her parents’ house in Horley and Reigate to drop off her brother Jacob when they nearly ran the donkey over on Smallfield Road.
Emily, 25, of Hilley Field Lane, Fetcham , overcame the shock of finding seeing the animal quickly and got out of the car to give chase.
She said: “We came to a roundabout on Smallfield Road and there was just a donkey running towards the car out of the dark.
“So I started shouting at Matt and jumped out of the car mid-stopping and just chased the donkey up the road.
“Matt goes round the roundabout and starts herding the donkey into Stonecourt Close with the car, meanwhile I’m now running after the car and the donkey and when I got there they’d kind of cornered it.
“I ran up to him (the donkey) and grabbed his collar that he had on luckily.
Emily said that Matt then called the RSPCA but they did not attend as the animal was not injured so instead they called police on 101.
(Image: Matt Drief)
While waiting for officer to arrive Emily’s parents also arrived to assist with the unlikely situation.
Emily said: “My parents came down and my mum came down with carrots to feed the donkey. I don’t think they really believed me until they got there and they were like “oh you’re actually being serious”.
Emily’s mum, Tanya Booth, 59, from Millfield Close in Horley, said: “I just thought he might be hungry!”
A PCSO from Reigate police station was despatched on the scene and also initially reacted in disbelief to the scene before him.
Emily said: “The police officer got there and was like ‘wait there’s actually a donkey… I’m just going to have to phone my sergeant because he won’t believe me.’
“Then the police decided it would be a good idea to move it to a nearby field and we started walking it along Smallfield Road to a nearby field that we found on Google maps.”
During the journey the donkey, which had been named ‘Elvis’ by the group, was disturbed by a passing car and ended up cantering up the road while Emily tried to hang on, breaking her sandal in the process.
‘Elvis’ then took refuge in Furze Close before the group were able to catch up with him.
(Image: Google Maps)
Emily continued: “The police re-joined us with a plan to stick him in the woods nearby so he’d walk through to the field on the other side.”
But the freaked out donkey refused to go into the woods and returned to the Booth family and his police escort as they were walking away.
Jacob, 28, said: “At this point the police called for reinforcements and took him off our hands because we’d been there about two hours and we just wanted to go home.”
However that was not the end of their night.
Emily said: “We finally get back in the car, turned to the end of the road and there was this police car driving up the road with the flashing lights and this donkey just runs past our headlights with the police car in hot pursuit!
“So we got back to the same roundabout we found it at two hours earlier and the two police officers had pulled the donkey over and were trying to chase it again!”
(Image: Reigate & Banstead SNT)
Eventually ‘Elvis’ was captured and returned to his owners.
Sgt Patrick McCann of Reigate and Banstead police said: “Officers are trained to use their communication skills in all situations, however there was ‘a little less conversation’ from Elvis the donkey, so they had to resort to holding on to its bridle.”
“Sadly as Elvis failed to stop, officers had to be resourceful. Whilst the exact tactic is unknown, one can only imagine they had to use the new DPAC tactic – ‘Donkey Pursuit and Containment’.
“Elvis (who is known to his owners as Dave) has left the building and is safely back at home off Balcombe Road in Horley with his owners.”