WHITE Hills man Nev Jenkins says he was gobsmacked to hear his new camel had escaped from his backyard on Wednesday.
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The nine-month old camel was only delivered to Mr Jenkins an hour before the curious animal decided to take her own tour of Bendigo.
The mischievous mammal roamed several streets in the CBD before City of Greater Bendigo animal catchers caught it.
With the help of members of the public the camel, who is yet to be named, was caught on the corner of Bridge and Bayne streets after 2pm.
He said Wednesday was a day he would never forget.
“The camel was delivered from Broken Hill and I only had it for about an hour before it escaped,” Mr Jenkins said.
“My mate called me at work and told me it had broken the gate off and it had run away.
“I think it escaped because it was not in familiar surroundings.”
Mr Jenkins said he wasn’t prepared for the camel when it arrived.
“I am supposed to take it to my farm in Colbinabbin but it came too early and I had to put it in my backyard,” he said.
Mr Jenkins said he then decided to call radio station 3BO to see if they would be able to spread the word and help find his missing animal.
3BO presenter Sam Hargreaves said he thought Nev was having a joke with him. “Nev calls in to 3BO all the time, he is ‘Nev the Tomato Man’,” he said.
“I answered the phone off-air and Nev said to me, ‘I have a bit of a problem, I lost my camel’. I just started laughing.
“Nev said to me he was being serious, so before we went into the news I put a call out telling people there was a camel on the loose in Bendigo.”
Mr Hargreaves said he still wasn’t sure if the story was true until people started calling in saying they had seen the large animal galloping down the street.
City of Greater Bendigo Animal Management Services coordinator Anthony Schofield said it was an unusual day.
“We usually get called out to jobs about dogs, not camels,” he laughed. “I think it wandered around the city for about 20 minutes before we caught it.”
Mr Jenkins said he first decided to buy the camel after seeing an ad in the Bendigo Advertiser.
He said it was an offer too good to refuse. “I thought the camel would be good for kids’ birthday parties,” Mr Jenkins said.
“When I was walking back home a lot of people were stopping to take photos of it, so people think it is interesting. People in their cars couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”
Mr Jenkins said it was not a publicity stunt and that the animal was now safe and secure under his car port.
He said he would take the camel to his farm in Colbinabbin first thing Thursday morning.
