DANGEROUSLY CHEESY

Ravenous Javelina Traps Itself in Vehicle, Destroys Car in Hunt for Cheetos

“Who doesn’t love a midnight Cheeto snack?” the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office asked.

What would you do for a bag of Cheetos? If you’re a wild javelina—a boar-like creature—in Arizona, you might jump into a Subaru station wagon, destroy the vehicle, then accidentally shift it into neutral, causing it to roll out of a driveway and into the street. At least, that’s what one hapless, hungry javelina did last week, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. The javelina, also known as a “skunk pig,” seized the opportunity to jump into the Subaru’s open hatchback last Wednesday night, tearing into a bag of Cheetos it found inside. But his “attempt to exit the vehicle proved to be more cumbersome than entering,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, and the animal was accidentally locked inside the car. In a panic, the javelina “knocked the vehicle into neutral,” the sheriff’s office explained, “which caused it to roll out of the driveway and across the street until stopping under some trees.” A sheriff’s deputy who had been summoned to the scene then opened the car’s hatchback, allowing the animal to jump out and scamper away unharmed, leaving only the faint whiff of cheese dust in his wake. “Can you blame him?” the department asked. “Who doesn’t love a midnight Cheeto snack?”