Residents of Sintra, a town about 30-kilometers north of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, couldn't believe their eyes when the small marsupial hopped across their front yards. Had they suddenly been transported to the Australian Outback? In the end, it turned out to be a kangaroo who had just lost his way.

Before its capture on Tuesday, the kangaroo spent three days hopping around Sintra. Authorities first became aware of the marsupial mayhem on Sunday, when a resident of Sintra called the police to say a kangaroo was visiting on the loose in the neighborhood. Initially, police didn't believe the caller and thought it was a prank. "The agent who took the call thought it was strange, he asked the caller to verify that it was actually a kangaroo," officer Pedro Nogueira told a Portuguese television station.

Ultimately, it turned out the kangaroo had been illegally kept as a house pet on an area farm. Authorities were able to track down the kangaroo's owner, the head of a small construction company. He now faces possible fines and charges for keeping the kangaroo and other exotic animals without having the proper licenses. A deer, ostriches, sheep, rabbits, and four other kangaroos were removed from the farm. The animals were transported to a nature reserve where authorities are trying to determine if any of them belong to an endangered species.