Save the cop jokes.

Three Wanaque police officers helped track down a local family's loose pet pig on Saturday, well aware of the irony behind it.

"Yea we know. The jokes are obvious," Wanaque police posted on Twitter. "But 27,000 calls this year so far but this is a first."

The mostly gray pig with some black spots escaped from the backyard of a home near the reservoir in town and "decided to take a little walk," Capt. Ken Fackina said.

Officers Jeff Heffernan, Kevin Norton and Paul Carbone located the traveling hog and found its owner to take the pig home safely.

New Jersey State Police PBA shared the pig pursuit and said that although officers respond to a wide variety of calls, "This is odd."

The Wanaque Police Department's Twitter followers also found some amusement in the escaped porker.

New Jersey police officers have had encounters with unique wildlife before. In January, officers rescued a python found at the side of the Garden State Parkway in Bloomfield.

Last year a pig was found at a Glen Ridge train station.

Email: jongsma@northjersey.com

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