Latresa Cardwell has seen and heard a lot of crazy things in her 20 years as a police dispatcher, but even she was a little taken aback by a call that came in to the Calera communications center this week.

Though she usually works days now, the department's communications supervisor was filling in Tuesday night for a dispatcher who had a family emergency. That's when she took a call from the manager at McDonald's saying there was a man, woman, dog and llama in the parking lot asking customers for money. "We get frequent calls about panhandlers in that area, so we weren't shocked about the call, but when he said the people had a llama with them, we thought they had to be Joking,'' Cardwell told AL.com. "They went on to ask us to hurry, because the llama was eating the shrubbery around the store and 'crapping' all over the place."

She dispatched officers to the restaurant, where indeed they found the couple, the dog and the llama. "The officer spoke with the subjects and made sure there was no visible harm being done to the animals and then asked them to leave the area, in which they did without any further incident,'' she said.

Calera police Chief Sean Lemley said it appears they had broken down on Interstate 65 around the 231 exit. They walked up to the McDonalds, where the officers found them. "They were fine, just hanging out until they could get their car fixed,'' he said. "Yep, they had a llama with them-on a leash. There was nothing to it, but it was a little crazy."

He said the officers took photos with the llama and they ended up giving the man some cash to help him out with getting his car fixed. "I think between the three officers out there they gave him $25,'' Lemley said.

The chief said you just never know what you'll see on the job, and Cardwell agreed. "We've answered many weird calls before, but this is the first involving panhandlers and a llama,'' Cardwell said. "I've had a few people correct me on calling it a llama because they said it was an alpaca, and I responded by telling them that this is the south and we don't split hairs on knowing the difference between llamas or alpacas, especially while it's panhandling."