Residents of a North Carolina town got a cute furry surprise on Monday (July 11) after a wallaby was seen hopping around town.
According to WCNC, the wallaby, a marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea, was spotted in the Lineberger Park neighborhood of Gastonia on Monday afternoon, surprising residents who are used to seeing the average dog or cat walking along the streets.
TJ Sutton was one of the residents who saw the fuzzy creature, which looks similar to a kangaroo, hopping outside his home.
"It's not every day you step out your front door and see a wallaby hopping around," said Sutton. "My neighbor across the street called me and sent me a picture of it. Me and my little boy walked out and saw it, and it's a sight to see in Gastonia. It's pretty neat."
Another neighbor, Bryan Sanders, was shocked by the "trippy" sight, WBTV reports. He also shared video of the creature hopping through yards with the outlet, which can be seen in the video below.
"It was a daggone wallaby or kangaroo or whatever it was sitting there and I just had to look at it, turn around real slow, and it looked back and I was like, 'this can't be real,'" he recalled. "And all the sudden it started hopping off and I caught a bunch of live photos and videos of it. It was the trippiest thing I've seen."
Officials from Gaston County Animal Care and Enforcement responded to the scene to collect the wallaby and found the person responsible for the animal. Sutton added that while it was a cool sighting, he hopes that the animal is being taken care of.
"You always hope that people are taking good care of it," he said. "Being in the city, there's not a whole lot of land around here."