Grey seal that evaded capture in Massachusetts pond surrenders at Beverly police station

Shoebert evaded capture but then decided to turn himself into the police in the early hours of the morning. Photo / Beverly Police

A grey seal that wandered into a Massachusetts pond and evaded authorities' attempts to capture him turned himself in Friday after waddling up to the local police station.

The grey seal first appeared earlier this month in Shoe Pond in the city of Beverly, northeast of Boston. The animal is believed to have travelled to the pond from the sea via a river and drainage pipes.

The seal quickly became a local attraction and was even named "Shoebert" after his chosen pond.

Firefighters and wildlife experts used boats and giant nets in an effort to capture the wily animal on Thursday, but gave up after several fruitless hours. Early Friday morning, however, Shoebert left the pond, crossed a parking lot and appeared outside the side door of the local police station looking, according to a police statement, "for some help".

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The seal was quickly corralled by a team of wildlife experts, firefighters and the police department's "entire midnight shift," according to a Facebook post from the Beverly Police Department.

"Shoebert appeared to be in good health and was a little sassy in the early morning hours," the department noted.

The seal was transported to Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, where aquarium staff will perform a medical exam before releasing him back into the wild, Sarah Callan, manager of the aquarium's animal rescue programme, wrote in an email.

IFAW first met #Shoebert in 2018 when he was found alone with severe wounds. We rescued him with the help of our partners and he was rehabbed and released by our friends at @mysticaquarium. He popped back in to say hello this week and make some headlines along the way! https://t.co/wvvCbrYwNW pic.twitter.com/hSY0AEAuXh

— ifaw (@ifawglobal) September 23, 2022

"He is acting like a typical, feisty, 4-year-old grey seal," Callan added. "We are planning to release him in a quiet, remote location near other seals."

It turns out this trip to Mystic Aquarium is not Shoebert's first - International Fund for Animal Welfare (ifaw) revealed in a Twitter post that the young seal was found in 2018 with severe wounds and was rehabilitated at the aquarium before being released back into the wild.