Tim ‘Goldsabertooth’ Taranto holds an escaped emu. He would later get treated for a leg injury. “Sometimes in life, you have to catch the emu. No one’s coming to catch it for you, you know?” he said. (Photo by Tory Taranto)

NORWICH - Just when City of Norwich residents thought they could safely assume all known emus were accounted for, another pair recently escaped a local farm. Though by nightfall on Tuesday, the last of the emus was safely returned home, unharmed and exhausted — for now.

On the afternoon of December 22, a freshly escaped emu sparked a new round of confusion, cooperation, and cardio across Norwich.

It began, as many modern emergencies do, 911 calls, disbelief and cell phones. The episode would end with a battered volunteer, a crowd-sourced solution, and the safe return of the emu just in time for Christmas.

The emus were spotted several times in recent days, joining last minute holiday Norwich shoppers who frequently called emergency services and shared images and video of the loose emu on social media.

The final round of encounters began sometime around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, along a busy Route 12 Highway, just north of the City of Norwich. The emu, whose name has not yet been released as of press time, could be seen darting across the intersection and between the southern shopping plazas

Many passersby initially struggled to understand what they were witnessing.

Among those who saw the early chaos was Will Radie, a local high school sports referee, who captured video as the scene rapidly escalated and aided in the apprehension. His attention was first drawn to the incident with a sense of alarm and concern, not realizing an escaped emu was involved.

“I was driving on 12 right, and right outside Subway there…” recalled Radie, pausing to collect his thoughts. His view was of the back of a man in the distance as he struggled with something in front of him, attempting to place a coat over it.

“At first I thought a parent was arguing with their kid or something like that, you know,” said Radie, trying to rationalize what his eyes were seeing. “Like put your coat on or something.”

“And I’m watching it and then it’s starting to be like a struggle and I’m like, ‘Am I watching a kidnapping in broad daylight?’”

“That’s exactly what it looked like,” he said, but then the emu situation became obvious as it escaped the grasp of the person attempting to restrain it.

“Then, it’s just- Boom! Like a cartoon, it exploded like a cloud of dust and it was just gone. It took off,” he said. “The people that were holding it just couldn’t hold onto it and it ran into the parking lot.”

As the six-foot bird moved through the roadway and into the nearby parking lots, several residents attempted to herd it.

The effort quickly shifted from curiosity to commitment, particularly for Tim “Goldsabertooth,” Taranto.

He is a Norwich resident well known by his Magic the Gathering alias, for his success in professional gaming tournaments and his work as an accomplished artist.

Taranto said he had read about the previous emu incidents with great interest and remembered thinking the same thing many residents did: why didn’t anyone just grab it?

That question was answered quickly. ‘Goldsabertooth’ managed to capture and restrain the emu and it began kicking and struggling. The encounter left him injured and it eventually sent him to the emergency room, where he received 15 staples for a leg wound.

“It hurt,” Taranto said. “It really hurt. But once you’re in it, you’re in it.”

He explained he and his brother Tory were traveling together. “I run a small business here, and we were getting out all of our deliveries before Christmas, and, I was buying lunch for my brother, and I got to the Price Chopper intersection, and then, like, I just… I was like, wait, is that the f-----g emu?”

Tory was surprised and baffled, admitting, “I didn’t know about the lore. I just moved back, so I didn’t know.”

“And it’s just rolling, you know? So, I got out of the car. I was like, maybe I can, like, corral it. I told Tory to call 911, and then I would just corral it,” said Tim.

“I just got close enough to it, and because we have a farm, you know, and I was like, I can grab it. So I put my arm around it and I had it. I was like, ‘boy, I have it.’”

“It’s, like, one of those things, you catch it, you don’t think about it. It’s like, the dog that catches the garbage truck. All right, now what? You never thought you’d get it, right? Yeah.”

“When there’s an emu on the run, you don’t think you’re going to be the person to, like, catch it. And then sometimes fate just kind of puts you at this intersection with the emu,” explained Tim.

He added, “Sometimes in life, you have to catch the emu. No one’s coming to catch it for you, you know?”

The emu disagreed. Though at first compliant, the situation would become more difficult as the emu hissed and deployed talons. A prolonged struggle in a parking lot ensued with several citizens and law enforcement attempting to assist and Tim would end up requiring medical attention.

The effort evolved into a game of ‘car and emu’ as a number of residents stopped to take videos and pictures. Witnesses described multiple people rushing in to help, some attempting to hold the bird down while others tried to block its escape routes with vehicles.

Tory was on the phone with the 911 dispatch as his brother and other good Samaritans aided him in holding the large bird down. Chenango County Sheriff deputies were also on scene and aided in cornering the emu. Though police warned people not to get too close for their own safety.

At one point, Tim shouted for help as he held the bird and several residents were on the ground with the emu as other bystanders shouted instructions.

“And then once I started trying to hold it down, then it started struggling, and then it just messed me up.”

Radie join others in helping Tim. “You see the police go cut it off. I hear a guy yelling ‘I need help somebody help me.’”

“You just see cars everywhere coming around, people realized what is going on and just started joining it,” said Radie.

He said the animal was caught in the corner of the plaza near an abandoned dollar store.

“By the time I get there a couple people are laying on top of it. He (Goldsabertooth) was laying on top of it, he was belly to beast,” said Radie.

“We all had our hands on the guy’s back and, every time the thing started to buck, we just pushed down and held him.”

Despite his injuries Tim's only concern was to help and not harm the emu. He said he took extra care in trying not to hurt the emu and had experience raising his own cows, horses and chickens. “First and foremost don't hurt the animals. Domestic animals should not be running wild, it's dangerous for people and it's dangerous for the animal.” He added he didn't want it running in the road or the owner getting sued.

After capturing the emu, the crowd and police were unsure of what to do next, and the owner could not be immediately contacted. Police at the scene expressed some concern and said they may have to just let the emu go.

Radie said that suggestion was soundly rejected by the crowd of volunteers at the scene.

“The police were actually kind of implying that we might be releasing it and people were like ‘We’re not releasing it on Route 12, like this is crazy.’”

Then the group began sharing ideas and engaged in collective problem-solving at the scene.

“No one really knew each other,” he said. “But everyone knew we couldn’t just let it go back into traffic.”

A woman said she knew someone who could assist with a trailer. Another man said he was the plaza building manager and offered to open-up the nearby dollar store and keep the bird inside.

“Somebody was like I have the key. I’m like the building manager to this abandoned dollar-store here,” said Radie.

Tired and seemingly appreciative of the suggestion, the emu entered a new phase of calm and compliance.

Another person then appeared with a large box, for an oven or a refrigerator, reports differ, and the group used it as a make-shift stretcher.

“We were surprised,” said Radie of the emu’s relaxed demeanor. “We loaded it onto a piece of cardboard and then like six or seven of us picked it up and carried it into the abandoned store on a cardboard.”

Radie said it was breathing heavily but recovered. As Tim traveled to the hospital at police urging, Radie and others continued to monitor the emu and await transport.

He said the emu settled down and was alert. Eventually, a trailer arrived from Rentals-to-Go, a business with a lot of livestock experience and employees cleverly used the store’s docking bay to load the Emu without incident and take it home to the owner. The business also return another missing emu the day before.

These emus are separate from the emus captured earlier in the month.

Their owner, Eric Simonds said tips from The Evening Sun’s coverage helped track down Blue after callers reported the bird had been lingering around their property for about a week, pecking at bird seed beneath the feeders.

Simonds said he built a simple, patient trap using a 10-by-10-foot dog-kennel setup about 6 feet high, placed it near the feeding area, and after a few days Blue “just wandered into it.”

Blue has since been reunited with Eddie, Simonds said, though she still seemed skittish after recent handling and transport.

“People were there yesterday and they were literally trying to tackle it or something. I’m like, well, that ain’t how you catch them. But I guess you live and learn,” said Simonds of the recent capture. He said he had created a tall fence and roofed enclosures to keep his emus confined, but said other owners did not take such extensive steps and the local emu saga was likely not yet over.

“I’m sure the other two will be loose again,” he warned.