Police retrieved an Australian journalist's pet wallaby early Thursday after it was spotted hopping down a residential street in Tokyo's Toranomon business district.
A local resident reported seeing the 50-cm-long marsupial, a smaller member of the kangaroo family, at 12:50 a.m. Two officers easily captured it some 300 meters west of Kamiyacho Station by taking hold of the 2-meter-long leash attached to its collar.
Police later received a call from its owner, Russell Skelton, reporting that his pet wallaby had been missing since Wednesday. Police returned the pet to Skelton, who lives in the neighborhood, before noon Thursday.
Skelton, 52, told police he bought the wallaby at a pet shop near Narita airport about a year ago. Officials at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo said some people keep wallabies as pets and sometimes call the zoo with questions about caring for them.