'They are actually pretty fast': Wayne police working to corral pigs on the loose

The Wayne Police Department is trying to help some pigs that are on the loose find their way home.

For the past 48 hours, members of the department have been responding to reports of what are believed to be four pigs that have been seen in the area. They had been seen around the western portion of Army Trail Road from approximately Robin Lane to Fox Glen Drive.

“We ended up finding out they had kind of been out and about for probably close to a week now,” Wayne Police Chief Tim Roberts said Wednesday morning, “although we just started getting calls in the last probably 48 hours and became involved in trying to corral them.”

Roberts said the owners of the pigs live in that general vicinity in unincorporated Kane County and were working last night to try to bring them home.

“They are aware of the fact that they are missing,” Roberts said. “We have a few residents that have experience in rescue and they have experience working with pigs or hogs. If we can get them kind of corralled, then we can try and use some of those resources to try to capture them and ultimately get them back home.”

As Roberts noted, trying to corral them has not been easy.

“They are actually pretty fast,” he said. “They have fled the officers a few times now. Those big ones are very big, and it's obviously a dangerous task to try and catch them when there's no really great way to do that. So we're trying to use these pig wrangler experts that have experience with it.”

The pigs apparently have ventured farther, too.

“This morning, we heard that they have made their way just south of Army Trail and are currently in St. Charles,” he said. “And so St. Charles was notified to try to have them help as well.”

On Wednesday afternoon, St. Charles Police Chief James Keegan said there have been no pig sightings so far.

Given the number of open areas in Wayne, Roberts said, the department has had to respond to all kinds of animals on the loose.

“Horses are probably the most frequent,” he said. “But we have had sheep on the run and horses on the run along with chickens and turkeys. And this is not the first time we have responded to pigs on the run. It's definitely a call for service that you don't see in other towns, but it's not too crazy here for us in Wayne.”

Roberts said he wouldn't be surprised if the pigs head back to Wayne.

“We're just going to monitor it and see how it goes,” he said.