'I think I see a zebra': Police release 911 call regarding zebras running loose in Wisconsin

GREEN BAY-APPLETON, Wis. -- The saying goes, "if you hear hooves, think horses, not zebra," but that wasn't true for one Wisconsin man who got quite a surprise when he spotted a pair of zebras trotting down the road.

"I'm right outside of Seymour. There's a couple of zebras walking down the middle of the road, and if you think I'm kidding, I'm not," said one 911 caller.

When people see a black and white animal on the side of the road in Wisconsin, it's usually cows, but these were animals of a different stripe.

The unusual sighting had some doing a double-take.

"I'm on an African safari in a garbage truck. Good lord," David Haupt can be heard in a video he took of the zebras.

He spotted the two zebras just outside of Seymour, WBAY reported.

"They were off in the distance. As I got closer, they looked like horses, and I got closer, and I happened to be talking to somebody on my headset, and I'm like, 'I think I see a zebra,' and they were like, 'no way.' I'm like, 'nope, those are zebras,'" Haupt recalled.

Haupt said the zebras were friendly when he chased them off into a hayfield so they would be off the busy road and let the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office know right away.

"Well, it's not the first exotic animal call ever we've gotten. Every once in a while, you get something different, but, yeah, having a garbage truck driver call you and say, 'well, there's two zebras in the road,' is a bit unusual," said Sgt. Nathan Borman with Outagamie County Sheriff's Office.

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The sheriff's office posted pictures that were shared by more than a thousand people.

Deputies said the animals belonged to a neighbor nearby, who were very quick to respond before rounding up the pair about 40 minutes after these pictures were taken and got them home safely.

"A friend of the owners had actually messaged me as well, let me know that those two are very well taken care of," Haupt said.

Authorities referred the matter to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources but have no further concerns about the situation.

Haupt's video on Facebook has been seen by more than 33,000 people and shared over 1,000 times.

"I mean, only in Wisconsin you're going to find all that," Haupt said.

Even more bizarre: zebras also got loose in the Washington D.C. area about a week ago.

More proof that when you hear hooves -- it might be zebras after all.