Wayward emu visits Wal-Mart

updated 1:20 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2007

WEST BEND, Wis. - Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers: The emu in the parking lot is not for sale.

Employees of a Wal-Mart Supercenter used shopping carts to corral a wayward emu outside the store Monday about 6 a.m., West Bend police said.

A manager fed the emu grapes and apples in an attempt to calm the bird inside the makeshift enclosure.

Richard Takacs, the owner of 3-year-old Myron, speculated the bird had been chased from his nearby farm by a coyote.

Emus can’t fly, but Takacs said he wasn’t surprised when police contacted him from the store, about two miles north of his Meadowbrook Market and Pumpkin Farm.

“They can run 40 miles an hour, so that was just a quick sprint for Myron,” Takacs said.

Two other emus from the farm also bolted from their pen but were found unharmed in a nearby pumpkin field.

Takacs retrieved the apparently frightened Myron from the 24-hour Wal-Mart and placed the bird by itself in a pasture so it could feel safe and relax.

Emus can grow up to six feet tall and weigh as much as 100 pounds.

West Bend is in southeastern Wisconsin, about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

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