ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It's not every day you see a mini horse wandering around town. But for St. Augustine resident Kurt McQuillen, this sight became a reality on Wednesday.
"The horse was right about here," Kurt McQuillen pointed at Anastasia Boulevard near the Black Fly restaurant.
He said he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the horse walking "straight down the middle of the lane, like a really slow four-legged commuter."
McQuillen was on his way to work when he saw a horse sharing Anastasia Boulevard with him around 3 a.m.
"It was headed toward the Bridge of Lions," McQuillen said. "Going to work that early in the morning, you see a lot of funny things. But I've never seen a horse, certainly not a mini horse wandering down the road."
He saw police approach to pull the horse over. A photo proves McQuillen wasn't just seeing things.
"He didn't appear to have anything wrong with him," he shrugged. "Just moseying along. Taking an evening stroll, I guess."
First Coast News spoke with a neighbor of the person who possibly owns the horse. The neighbor said, "Oh yeah, the horse got out. The police brought it back home. The horse is fine."
It appears this was not the horse's first brush with the law.
"The horse is very friendly," Corporal Chris Miller with the St. Augustine Police said. He's fairly certain he corralled the same mini horse a year or so ago.
"He's someone's pet," Miller said. "Every now and then, he likes to go for a walk, I guess. He finds a way to get out like a cat or a dog would."
No word if the horse will be saddled with a record.
"It's one of those lighter moments of police work," Miller said. "And sometimes, we need those moments."
As for McQuillen, he had trouble convincing the guys at work he saw a mini- horse on the lam.
"The first assumption is, 'Oh, it was one of the horses from the carriages.' I was like, 'No, it would be a very small carriage,'" he said.