"Seriously. He stole a perfectly good donut. FROM A COP. That's a straight-up felony. Also… it's rude," the police department posted on Facebook alongside video providing smoking gun evidence of the scandalous squirrel's heist that will surely get him indicted. But for now, he's still one the loose.
The video begins with an officer walking through a parking lot of police cruisers. From a distance, the video shows the squirrel scurrying about, evading police by hiding under cruisers. The officer remains in hot pursuit as he eventually comes within a few feet of the furry felon, getting irrefutable footage of the squirrel's scrounging.
The suspect takes one good look at the officer before bolting away, outrunning the copper. Towards the end of the hair-raising footage, a pigeon can be seen swooping down nearby the squirrel. A possible co-conspirator? Twitter thinks so. One user tweeted "Well there was air support at the end of the vid! That bird though!"
— Jossie Alford (@Jossie31) June 26, 2018
No shortage of social media users aired their support of the distressed officer, with calls to get that squirrel off the streets.
— Fam (@T_pham1996) June 26, 2018
— Marsha (@marindmode) June 26, 2018
— Malum Scientificus (@thorfinn911) June 26, 2018
— Sandra Carmichael (@S_Carmichael_) June 26, 2018
Others noticed the rodent's "glazed eyes" and generally squirrelly behavior, a possible indication that the it could have been on drugs at the time, or simply "nuts."
— bl (@blsuccess) June 26, 2018
— FD The grinder (@FallingdownAl) June 26, 2018
As with any police video, opinion was divided. Radio station KFI AM 640 tweeted that Donut Squirrel is "the hero we don't deserve, but need right now."
— KFI AM 640 (@KFIAM640) June 26, 2018
— sjalaska (@sjalaska) June 27, 2018
Others seem to think there's a larger conspiracy at play.
— Secret ‘Society’ Squirrel (@ssquirrel007) June 26, 2018
In any case, it isn't clear how police were able to catch the thief in the act. Perhaps they had a rat.