Ed the escaped zebra recaptured, Tennessee officials say
A runaway zebra that became an internet sensation has been safely recaptured, US officials have said.
Ed the pet zebra was on the loose for more than a week before being found in a pasture in Christiana, a small community in central Tennessee, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook.
In a statement, the office said that Ed "was airlifted and flown by helicopter back to a waiting animal trailer" on Sunday.
0:49
A video posted by the sheriff's office showed Ed caught in a net with his head sticking out as he was carried by helicopter to an animal trailer.
Ed originally arrived in Christiana, which is around 40 miles southeast of Nashville, on 30 May, but his owner reported him missing the next day.
During his time on the run, Ed was seen on Interstate 24 - a major route which runs from southern Illinois to southern Tennessee - "scampering across the highways in both the eastbound and westbound lanes".
But before he could be grabbed, "he escaped into a wooded area and disappeared until being spotted Thursday," the sheriff's office said.
There were several sightings of him posted to social media, among them Ed trotting around a local neighbourhood.
1:15
His adventures sparked a host of memes, including Ed eating waffles, a southern US favourite, while others had him visiting other Tennessee cities or begging on the side of the road.
Ed's 15 minutes of fame came a month after a runaway kangaroo shut down a section of a different Interstate in Alabama, inadvertently causing a two-car crash, before being caught.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
15 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Soccer coach admits drugging and raping young boys... after leaving sick evidence in plain sight
A Tennessee youth soccer coach admitted to drugging and raping young boys after disturbing sexually explicit content involving minors was discovered on his cell phone after he left it behind at a restaurant. Camilo Campos-Hurtado, 65, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of receiving visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on Tuesday, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. The egregious content came to light in 2023 when Campos-Hurtado lost his phone. While trying to identify the owner, staff members discovered 'dozens of unconscionable videos and pictures of children,' and immediately called police, McClatchy News reported. Investigators discovered a cell phone and several other electronic devices, belonging to Campos-Hurtado, which had hundreds of images of child sexual abuse material that he received, downloaded and produced between 2017 and 2021. The countless photos and videos showed the Franklin-native sexually assaulting unconscious boys ranging from 9 to 17 years old, according to the Department of Justice. Investigators later learned that Campos-Hurtado would recruit players from school playgrounds to play for his soccer team. 'After gaining their trust, Campos invited many of the kids to his home where he drugged and then raped them,' police stated, adding that some victims may not even be aware of what transpired. While investigators identified at least 10 victims, Campos-Hurtado pleaded guilty to the aforementioned five counts. According to an indictment, Campos-Hurtado's abuse dates back to 2013. In addition to the sexual exploitation charges, search warrants revealed fake IDs and immigration documents, including three counterfeit social security cards, two fake legal permanent resident cards and a fraudulent resident alien card. Campos-Hurtado, who prosecutors say lacks legal status in the US, was also charged with using or possessing fraudulent immigration documents and possessing a stolen or unlawfully produced identification document. 'Campos preyed on children in our community for years, using his position to gain the trust of his victims only to betray them by sexually abusing them,' Robert McGuire, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said. 'Protecting children in our community and holding child sex offenders to maximum accountability is among the highest priorities of our office and of the Department of Justice. At sentencing, we will seek to guarantee that Campos does not have any chance to hurt another child.' Campos-Hurtado pleaded guilty to all seven charges he was indicted on and is scheduled for sentencing on October 29. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, after which he will be deported to Mexico, according to the US Attorney's Office. Campos-Hurtado's hometown of Franklin is about a 20-mile drive south from downtown Nashville.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Wolves in sheep's clothing': how a neo-Nazi cell infiltrated a martial arts school in Tennessee
A neo-Nazi fight club that secretly infiltrated a Tennessee martial arts school where young children train has been banned from the facility, after an inquiry by the Guardian. Last month, the South Central Tennessee Active Club published video footage on the messaging app Telegram showing its members participating in combat training at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that offers classes to students as young as three years old. The group is part of the wider Active Club network, which consists of dozens of decentralized cells across the US and abroad that use combat sports to lure people into white nationalist and neo-Nazi causes. While lesser known than other far-right groups like the Proud Boys, experts warn Active Clubs are acutely dangerous because they recruit boys and young men into violent white nationalist circles by using notions of fraternity as a gateway to extremism. 'What makes them unique is the 'wolves in sheep's clothing' approach, which aims at fooling law enforcement into believing Active Clubs are just about sports,' Alexander Ritzmann, a political scientist and senior advisor at the Counter Extremism Project who studies the movement, told the Guardian. In a 2023 report, Ritzmann warned that the ultimate goal of Active Clubs 'is the creation of a stand-by militia of trained and capable [right wing extremists] who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises'. At one point in the video posted by the Tennessee cell, an Active Club flag featuring a sonnenrad, a symbol of Nazi Germany that has been adopted by neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists, can be seen hanging on the wall where young children would normally gather. After it was presented with the video of the Active Club training at its facilities, Shelbyville BJJ Academy told the Guardian 'that type of behavior at our gym is a direct violation of our code of ethics and goes against our community offering as a safe place for children and adults. 'The situation has been remedied promptly and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention,' the school continued, in a statement. 'We can assure you, this will not be happening again. Ever.' The academy also rejected the Active Club's extremist ideology, emphasizing: 'We accept and welcome all people. We all belong. No matter background, skin color, creed, nationality, or status.' As for how the group gained entry, the school said it provides keypad access to members so they can train outside regular class hours. It believes the Active Club entered using this method and said the access code has been changed. While the South Central Tennessee Active Club blurred the faces of most of its members shown in the video taken at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, the face of one man was left uncensored. His name: William Chase May. Records on Smoothcomp, a software used to organize and record combat sports events, show he was awarded his blue belt by Shelbyville BJJ Academy in 2023. The school confirmed that May was a member, though said his attendance was infrequent and that he only showed up from 'time to time'. He was banned after the Guardian brought his identity to its attention and, the academy said, an internal investigation into whether any other members made unauthorized use of the facility is ongoing. Riztmann told the Guardian that the Active Club's presence at the Tennessee academy is especially concerning because the movement's architect, the white supremacist Robert Rundo 'laid out the principle recruiting strategy, which includes reaching out to minors at schools'. In April, the Guardian reported on Telegram accounts which showed many Active Clubs in the US had participants between the ages of 16 and 18. Multiple images posted to the Google reviews page of Shelbyville BJJ by May, under the alias 'Chase Odinson' show he had trained and interacted with young children at the school as far back as 2023. May viewed a request for comment sent to him on Telegram by the Guardian, but did not reply. Images of the Active Club chapter training at the Shelbyville school were first discovered in September by a pseudonymous independent researcher who tracks Tennessee Active Clubs, according to chat logs they shared with the Guardian. In December, they began posting some of their findings on the social media network Bluesky, where they use the alias Inteltwink. 'It was through Chase May that I identified Shelbyville BJJ,' they told the Guardian, adding that they identified him after they 'infiltrated TAC's private telegram chat'. While it is unclear how frequently or for how long the Active Club used the school's facilities, the latest video confirms the group was sharing documentation of its activities there for months. The seat of Bedford County, Shelbyville is a city of 23,000 located 50 miles southeast of Nashville, the state capital. Tennessee has been identified in recent years by researchers and journalists as a hotbed for violent white nationalist activity. In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) revealed a statewide Tennessee Active Club was holding networking events and fight clubs at a Nashville area general store owned by a self-declared 'actual literal Nazi'. Last month, the SPLC reported that the statewide Active Club was being secretly controlled by the Patriot Front, a racist and neo-fascist hate group. In March, News Channel 5 reported Patriot Front had established a 122-acre compound in Tellico Plains. And, last fall, the Daily Beast reported that one of the men Channel 5 identified as a leader of that compound, Ian Elliott, had infiltrated another child-friendly Tennessee grappling school in Athens (the school kicked him out). Meanwhile May, who was part of the Active Club that infiltrated Shelbyville school, appears to be acquaintances with Elliott. An image he posted to his personal Telegram account on 26 October 2024 shows him and the Patriot Front leader posing alongside a third man whose face is obscured with a sonnenrad.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Kanye West's wife Bianca Censori shocks again as she pulls dangerous move behind wheel of Porsche
Kanye West 's wife Bianca Censori has pulled yet another eye-catching stunt certain to leave the public in a state of astonishment. Ever since they secretly tied the knot in 2022, Bianca has consistently shocked fans with the flesh-flashing ensembles her husband styles for her. Now, however, her conduct behind the wheel of her gleaming Porsche convertible may be the cause of further comment from observers. Bianca, 30, was spotted staring open-mouthed at her phone while she was driving the jet-black vehicle through Beverly Hills this week. She appeared to be flouting the California Wireless Communications Device Law, which prohibits using a handheld cellphone while operating a motor vehicle. Bianca's sighting comes after Kanye experienced his own bout of car trouble, as a photographer snapped images of the rapper's custom Maybach being towed away from the Château Marmont on Tuesday. New images obtained by Daily Mail show the luxury car owned by the 48-year-old Runaway rapper being put on the back of a tow truck and hauled away from the hotel. The venue – where Saturday Night Live legend John Belushi tragically overdosed in 1982 - remains a favorite haunt of Hollywood celebrities, but parking remains limited. The Bully artist was spotted with partner Bianca Censori earlier Tuesday in Los Angeles, after traveling to New York City earlier this month to attend the trial of Sean ' Diddy ' Combs, who he has professed support for publicly on multiple occasions. Daily Mail has reached out to West's rep Milo Yiannopoulos and the tow company listed on the side of the truck for further comment on the item involving the vehicle. West has remained in the crosshairs of controversy for much of the year amid a torrent of tweets propagating antisemitism, though he renounced those beliefs in a tweet last month. 'I am done with antisemitism,' he said in a May 22 tweet that garnered 167,000 likes from the influential artist's network of more than 33.2 million followers. The stance came in stark contrast to Ye's controversial one four months earlier: He posted multiple images swastikas, and plastering them on a number of clothing items he intended to sell. On February 11, the shop on West's Yeezy Website - which he advertised with an expensive ad in the Super Bowl - was taken offline by Shopify after he was selling a white shirt with a black swastika in the center. West spoke more about the controversy in a series of tweets February 20 - promising to wear the swastika shirt onstage at the 2026 Super Bowl. 'Next year I'm performing at the superbowl wearing my wittle T shirt,' he said. 'People with money bought my wittle t shirt.' He added that Shopify 'gave [him his] account back' after taking down his store after controversy erupted over the shirts, but that he was 'not going to use it.' The Anti-Defamation League said in a post on X/Twitter February 10: 'As if we needed further proof of Kanye's antisemitism, he chose to put a single item for sale on his website – a t-shirt emblazoned with a swastika. 'If that wasn't enough, the t-shirt is labeled on Kanye's website as "HH-01,"which is code for "Heil Hitler." 'Kanye was tweeting vile antisemitism nonstop since last week. There's no excuse for this kind of behavior.' The organization added, 'Even worse, Kanye advertised his website during the Super Bowl, amplifying it beyond his already massive social media audience.' Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, the founder and executive director of CyberWell, an online anti-Semitism watchdog group, told February 11 that the organization made efforts to go over West's head and have the page removed. 'CyberWell reached out Shopify's compliance and safety teams to alert them to flagrant abuse of Shopfiy's services by in violation of the terms of use,' Cohen Montemayor said. Podcaster Van Lathan, who famously clashed with West in a heated discussion in the TMZ newsroom in May of 2018, was critical of the rapper's latest series of tweets in a post on the platform February 20, calling him 'the slow kid in the Black community's class.' 'I'm glad you're rich,' Lathan wrote. 'It seems to be the only thing you care about. Money is dope you can do a lot of stuff with it. Sincerely. We need it, as a community. 'One thing that's more valuable than money is people. I'm sure you'd agree no dollar amount can measure North's laugh, I'm sure you'd go broke to bring your mother back. I would for my dad, who I lost in '21.' Lathan told West he was 'trapped in an infant's bubble, where [he] can be reckless and careless and people excuse it because of affection. 'We realize this, and try to ignore you, until the baby picks up something sharp like Nazism, domestic abuse, etc. then we gotta child proof things until you stop crying.' Lathan, who cohosts the podcast Higher Learning with Rachel Lindsay, continued, 'You're right about one thing, I am a slave to capitalism. We all are. Gotta work. 'But No one is more of a slave than the man who puts money over dignity. No one. So I'll be a slave, and you be what you are, which is the slow kid in the Black community's class. Keep eating boogers Kanye.'
