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Camel On Loose Creates Tricky Situation For East Bay Cowboys

CONCORD (CBS13) - What happens when a camel crosses a Bay Area road? Chaos.

The camel crossing happened on Bailey Road in Concord on Tuesday night, where a dozen East Bay cowboys had the tricky task of corralling "Rudy" into a trailer.

Several ropes were attached to the camel and truck to help guide him into the trailer. We intentionally did not turn on our CBS5 camera lights so we wouldn't spook him.

"I've been a cowboy all my life," said Rick Bradley of Eden Valley Ranch. "All I've every done is work with cows. On the ranch it's creative ingenuity. Whatever's going to work. Road's shut down. We need to get this thing in the trailer."

The camel was walking south along Bailey Road as cars were intentionally swerving to miss him. The camel weighs more than a ton and according to his owner is about 12 years old.

"The other day he was on our property," another cowboy said, "which he went back easily so we figured it would pretty much be the same."

So he's known as the camel that roams around?

"Yeah, he roams around."

Rudy is often spotted grazing by the side of the road behind a wire fence, but Tuesday he got out not once, but twice. It took more than two hours to get him corralled into the trailer.

Rudy will be checked out by a veterinarian but it's believed he wasn't injured despite the initial dispatch report of "camel vs. minivan."

"It's going to go on my resume as something I've never done before," Bradley said. "Hopefully, I'll never do it again."

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