No porkies: He was followed by this pig and didn't know what to do. So he called the cops

A man in the US complained he was being followed by this pig. Photo / North Ridgeville Police, Facebook

A pig was taken into police custody after it was accused of stalking a human, who was so perplexed by his four-legged pursuer that he called emergency services to report it.

"Yes," police said, "a pig."

The unusual case unfolded at the weekend when a man said that he was being followed on his way home from an Amtrak station in Ohio.

It made for a surreal emergency call.

"North Ridgeville Police," the dispatcher answered.

"Uh, hi, I'm walking from the Elyria train station to my house in North Ridgeville and a random pig just came up and started following me," the caller said.

Dispatcher: "A pig, you said?"

Caller: "Yes."

And then: "It seems very keen to stay with me, so . . ."

The dispatcher chuckled, then composed herself and told the man she would send an officer.

The North Ridgeville Police Department later suggested that it was at least a little sceptical about the call.

The man, according to police, said "he was being followed by a pig and didn't know what to do".

"A pig. Riiiight," the department wrote in a lighthearted Facebook post.

But, you know, protect and serve and all, and so, police said, "night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5.26 in the morning. He was at least drunk enough to call the police on himself while hallucinating."

And yet . . .

"Upon arrival, they found a very sober male walking eastbound on Centre Ridge near Maddock Rd from the actual Amtrak train station in Elyria, not the bar. Oh, and he was being followed by a pig."

Ryan Singley, the caller who reported the oddity, told Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS that the animal was friendly.

"It was staying close to me, rubbing against my legs, and was trying to climb up my legs to get me to pet her," he told the station, adding that the animal seemed pretty good-natured.

"She was very sweet and nice, and the responding officer was in good spirits about the whole thing," Singley said.

North Ridgeville Police Captain Marti Garrow told the Washington Post that the pig is somebody's pet and that it had dug itself out of its fenced-in yard.

Garrow said officers took the animal, which he said weighs between 15 and 22kg, to a dog kennel until its owners could pick it up.

The pig, identified by police as Zoey (or perhaps Zoe), has been returned home, he said.

In the end, police were not oblivious to the humour.

"We will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they're funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard," the department said.