Officer Roger Pereira has definitely had some strange experiences on the job. It comes with the territory. On Tuesday morning, he received one of the strangest calls of his career. There was an animal who had decided to hold up traffic. The US-101 is one of the busiest roadways in the country. However, this sea lion seemed to have other ideas and he had zero qualms about slowing everyone else down.
When the officer first got the call, they assumed that they were the victim of a prank. How would a sea lion make their way out onto dry land anyway? He was quite skeptical and rightfully so. Once he arrived on the scene, he realized just how wrong he was. There was a sea lion on the freeway and the animal had no designs on moving anytime soon.
Luckily, some Good Samaritans had decided to assist the animal. They were forming a protective circle around the sea lion until more help arrived. Because of their help, the sea lion did not end up wandering into the traffic. We cannot even begin to imagine how this officer must have felt when they first arrived. It is not every day that you see a sea lion out on the highway.
The sea lion had no clue as to what was going on. They were behaving in the same manner as a small child would. The animal did not seem to realize that they were holding up everyone else and the imagery is just too adorable. You would think that the loud noises of all the cars passing by would have spooked the animal but that was not the case.
This is one sea lion that knows how to roll with the punches. Their calm curiosity made the situation much easier to handle for the police officer. Officer Pereira did not want to “arrest” the animal but he had no choice. The sea lion was placed in handcuffs and led away from the scene. They seemed to realize that the officer was there to help.
Look who the CHP FOUND ON highway 101. pic.twitter.com/xGzkIGNTQ0
— Amy Hollyfield (@amyhollyfield) April 30, 2019
According to Pereira, the sea lion got into the back of his squad car without requiring “any type of motivation”. What a hilarious image this is. It is not every day that you get the chance to see a sea lion in the back of a cop car. The sea lion also greatly enjoyed their ride with the friendly officer. This is one arrest that went rather swimmingly….see what we did there? Those who wish to help the sea lion are urged to offer their donations to Marine Mammal Rescue Center.