Giant bird on the run triggers traffic jam.
A huge Australian bird stopped traffic for 20 minutes on busy Highway A1A in Cape Canaveral, Florida Wednesday morning.
A camera in a Brevard County Sheriff's patrol car captured the scene at about 7:30 a.m. as the 5-foot tall emu, named Taco, high-stepped in and out of morning rush-hour traffic.
At one point, the bird aggressively approached a deputy on a motorcycle and the officer backed up.
The bird also went after a man on a scooter.
Deputies tried to surround the bird with patrol cars and shoo it off the road, but that didn't work.
"It was a safety problem at that point," said sheriff's spokesman Alex Herrera. "Traffic moves at 45 mph, and a bird of that size would have made quite an impact."
Taco's owner showed up and caught him by putting a towel over his head.
The bird lives in a suburban backyard about two blocks from the highway.