Police officers in Ohio were convinced a man who called 911 about a pig following him was drunk and hallucinating — but turns out the caller was telling the truth, and “very sober.”

North Ridgeville police officers received a call just before 5:30 a.m. Saturday from a man who said a pig was following him while he was walking home from the Amtrak train station in Elyria, located about 30 miles west of Cleveland. The caller added that he “didn’t know what to do," the department wrote in a Facebook post. 

Police officers were skeptical to believe the man and thought he was intoxicated and walking home from the bar.

“Night shift responded to the obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5:26 in the morning. He was at least drunk enough to call the police on himself while hallucinating,” the police department said. 

But the officers’ theory was actually wrong. Not only was the man very sober and walking home from the train station (like he said), a pig was actually following him.

“Yes, a pig,” the department added.

ARIZONA OFFICER'S BELT STOPS BULLET IN 'WAY TOO CLOSE A CALL' ENCOUNTER

One of the officers managed to get the pig into the police cruiser and take it to the city’s dog kennel — that doubled as a pig pen for a few hours.

By 8:23 a.m. Saturday, the pig was returned to its owner, whose identity was not revealed, police said. 

“You’d have thought we would have learned our lesson after the kangaroo incident,” the police department said, referencing to a 2015 incident when a “runaway kangaroo” was located in the town.

The police department posted a photo of the pig in the police cruiser on Facebook, which received more than 21,000 reactions, 11,500 shares and more than 2,000 comments as of Sunday morning.

A South Carolina NAACP chapter president who says he was racially profiled during a traffic stop was accused of lying after police released video footage of the encounter, according to reports.

"Tonight, I was racially profiled by Timmonsville Officer CAUSE I WAS DRIVING A MERCEDES BENZ AND GOING HOME IN A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD," Timmonsville NAACP President Rev. Jerrod Moultrie said in an April 13 Facebook post, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

"He made a comment that the officer accused him of having drugs in the car,” Timmonsville Police Chief Billy Brown said, according to the station. “He said that his wife and grandchild was in the car. He asked them not to move because the officer looked as if he might shoot them or something. He also made mention that the officer continued to ask him about his neighborhood. Why was he in that neighborhood? And threaten[ed] to put him in jail in reference to something dealing with the registration to the vehicle."

Brown told the station that after reviewing the bodycam video of the stop, he determined there was nothing to Moultrie’s claims.

"When I saw the video, I was shocked that someone who is supposed to be a community leader, a pastor, and head of the NAACP would just come out and tell a blatant lie,” the police chief said. “It bothered me. It really bothered me, thinking about the racial unrest it could've cost in the community and it's just troubling to me that someone who held a position like that would come out and just tell a lie.”

Based on the body camera footage, the officer who stopped Moultrie neither asked if he had drugs in the car nor why he was driving in the area,” the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

The paper reported that the officer stopped Moultrie for making a turn without signaling.

According to the paper, Moultrie’s Facebook post had been deleted.

Fox 5 quoted a local community activist as saying that he was so upset by Moultrie’s claims that he went to the police department to take a look at the video.

Timothy Waters of Florence said the video just made him more upset, the station reported.

"Once I got a copy of that bodycam, it's as if he made the whole story up. And I felt like he set us back 100 years because think about all of the racial profiling cases [that] are true," Waters said.

The station quoted Moultrie as declining further comment.

Click here for more from Fox 5 Atanta.

An Arizona police officer narrowly escaped injury while responding to a domestic violence incident on Friday when a man opened fire and a bullet hit the cop's belt, officials said.

The Tucson Police Department said in a news release that two officers, Nathan Stout and Steven Clark, were shot at when responding to the home just before 10 p.m. 

"Thankfully, no injuries," Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said on Twitter. "Way, way, way too close a call. This takes 'high risk' to a whole other level." 

Officers had received a 911 call from a man at a bar who stated his stepfather, 51-year-old Roy King, pulled out a handgun and threatened him and a friend. King then left the bar and drove to a home, according to police. 

When officers found King's vehicle in the driveway, they heard the 51-year-old shouting from his backyard before he fired a handgun at the two police officers, officials said. One of the rounds struck Officer Stout's duty belt, which stopped the bullet from injuring him.

Officers returned fire on King, who retreated into his home before he was eventually talked into surrendering and arrested, Tucson police said.

INDIANA POLICE AMBUSH BY GUNMAN WHO ALLEGEDLY KILLED NEIGHBOR SHOWN IN DRAMATIC VIDEO

King was booked into the Pima County Jail on two counts of assault with a deadly incident for the incident at the bar, and two additional counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the shooting at the home. Tucson police said both officers have been with the department for a year and a half. The incident remains under investigation.

"We could be investigating the death of an officer out here," Tucson Sgt. Pete Dugan told Tucson News Now. "These are extremely serious and sometimes...people don't know exactly what we have to respond to and this was one of those situations."

OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2018

While no members of law enforcement were injured or killed in Friday's shooting in Arizona, at least 36 law enforcement officers across the U.S. have died while on duty since the start of 2018, with 24 of the deaths caused by gunfire.

Roughly 135 cops died in 2016, making it the deadliest year for police officers in at least five years, Fox News found. While there were fewer deaths in 2017, the numbers weren’t much better: A total of 129 officers died last year. And 46 of those were caused by gunfire.

Fox News' Madeline Farber contributed to this report.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. –  You may not know what a Bearcat is but you’ve probably seen them, deployed by SWAT and tactical teams responding to violent protests and barricade situations, or to save people trapped in hurricanes, floods and mudslides. 

Police departments nationwide have been stocking up on the Armored Incident Response & Rescue Vehicles, taking advantage of a federal program enacted in the 90s allowing law enforcement access to military-grade gear. 

The program was temporarily suspended by President Obama in 2015 but reinstated by President Trump last year. Mr. Trump signed an executive order lifting the ban on military gear to police departments. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time that the restart would "send a strong message that we will not allow criminal activity, violence and lawlessness to become a new normal."

TRUMP, DOJ REVERSE OBAMA RESTRICTIONS ON MILITARY GEAR FOR LOCAL POLICE

The Bearcat is built by LenCo Armored Vehicles of Pittsfield Massachusetts, which just spent $5 million to expand production of their highly sought after all-terrain beast, purchasing and refurbishing the 70,000-square-foot building adjacent to their original factory to eventually double the output of product.

LenCo has built and sold nearly 6,000 BearCats to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and 40 foreign governments. The trucks, built on a shortened Ford F-550 chassis, weigh roughly nine tons, fabricated from flat sheets of American-made bulletproof steel and bulletproof glass. The CEO of LenCo, Len Light, says it is “necessary to give these departments the best tools they need to protect themselves in life-threatening situations.”

Critics of the vehicles call the militarization of police forces a threat to local law enforcement and community partnerships.

Mathew Feeney of the Cato Institute insists “It’s very important local communities don’t view their police department as an occupying force,” saying “unfortunately, the militarization of the police really does blur that distinction.”

It takes about four weeks to build a single BearCat, with 100 employees finishing one BearCat a day on average. The demand for the vehicle was so great it led to a back order of close to a year and a half. The expansion into the new facility is expected to bring that wait time down to eight months or less when fully operational.

Currently in over 800 local departments, the BearCat has been used in nationally covered riots and protests, most notably in Ferguson, Miss. and Baltimore.

The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, launched its “War Comes Home” campaign, advocating against “excessive militarization of American policing”, and identifying the BearCat, saying it “appears threatening.”

LenCo understands the criticism but says its vehicles “save lives.” Officials at the company told Fox News story after story of officers thanking them after shootouts where the vehicle prevented harm to the police and citizens.

The expansion is expected to help re-brand the company as a rescue vehicle. During multiple national disasters in the past year, including floods, wildfires and mudslides, the BearCat has been utilized in a search and recovery capacity. Outfitted with a water cannon, and a 350-gallon water tank, the company hopes to attract more fire and first responder departments.

The BearCat is not commercially sold, and must be purchased by a local, state or federal agency.

The expansion project is expected to create about 20 percent more jobs in the western Massachusetts company.

A Connecticut police officer is fighting for her life after she was stabbed in the throat while investigating a disturbance Thursday morning, officials said.

Hartford police Deputy Chief Brian Foley said the stabbing occurred at Spectra Boutique Apartments. He said the female officer was trying to handcuff a woman during an eviction.

The unidentified officer was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition with stab wounds in her jugular and trachea, police said in an update on Facebook. After coming out of surgery, the officer was in the intensive care unit and said to be in critical/stable condition.

The suspect, identified as Chevoughn Augustin, 39, was taken into custody and later charged with criminal attempted murder, first-degree assault, assault on a police officer and 3rd degree criminal mischief, police said.

Hartford police patrol officers went to an apartment building around 9:40 a.m. after getting a report "of a disturbance involving a female tenant of the building," police said. When they got there, authorities said Augustin was located on the 9th floor of the building.

"At some point during the investigation a struggle ensued and the suspect knocked the officer to the ground, grabbed a large ceramic kitchen knife, placed her in a choke hold and began stabbing the officer in the neck," police said.

The injured officer was able to call for help, police said, meanwhile building management and maintenance workers nearby "heard the struggle" and were able to control and disarm Augustin.

Responding officers got the injured officer to an ambulance and "secured the suspect and knife," police said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital to be treated for hand injuries, police said. She was then brought to the police station, charged and given a $4.5 million bond, they said.

Foley earlier described the maintenance workers who intervened as "heroic," according to the Hartford Courant.

The department credited those workers, saying had they not responded, "this scenario would have been fatal."

Police Chief David Rosado in a statement said it "was a very difficult day" for the department.

"We should always remember the risks that members of law enforcement take every day on our behalf and be grateful to them," he continued. "I also want to recognize the two civilians who helped bring the altercation to a close - their instinctive heroism helped get our officer to the hospital as quickly as possible."

Regarding the injured officer, Rosado said she was a 12-year veteran of the department and is "very well-respected," according to the Courant. 

"She's a great officer," he said. "We pray for her recovery."

Mayor Luke Bronin tweeted earlier about the stabbing and asked for the public's "thoughts and prayers."

“This morning, a Hartford Police Officer sustained severe stab wounds while in the line of duty,” he said. “She is in critical condition and we will update the public later today. We ask the entire Hartford community to keep the officer in their thoughts and prayers.”

Bronin has visited the hospital where the officer is recovering, Fox 61 reported.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy also tweeted saying, "Our prayers are with the HPD officer who was injured in the line of duty this morning. We are sending our best wishes to her for a speedy recovery."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A New Jersey police department is under fire for allegedly letting officers pick on fellow cops with a large sex toy and allowing the harassment to go unchecked for years, a lawsuit filed last week said.

Five Mountainside police officers and one employee filed a lawsuit against the borough for allowing “harassing, inappropriate and illegal conduct” to occur, the New York Post reported Thursday.

The accusations include people being hit in the head with a sex toy – nicknamed "Big Blue" – as well as being forcibly tickled, assaulted with a flashlight and flashed by the genitalia of other officers, the paper reported.

Officers Christopher Feighner, Richard Latargia, Thomas Norton, Jeffrey Stinner, and James Urban and employee Amy Colineri were named as making the accusations against Officers Thomas Murphy and Andrew Huber, who were allegedly creating a “hostile work environment.”

Huber allegedly started to use the sex toy to harass his colleagues sometime between 2007 and 2008 and it was used on multiple occasions despite being thrown out and multiple complaints made, the Post reported.

Huber also allegedly attacked a dispatcher with the sex toy, while Murphy filmed.

“Huber stuck Big Blue in the male dispatcher’s face and hit him over the head with it,” the paper reported, citing the complaint. “Murphy laughed and stated, ‘Get him,’ ‘What’s it smell like,’ and ‘I hope it doesn’t smell like what I think it smells like.'”

Officers would also take part in a game where one person would take out his genitalia and put it on someone’s food or in someone’s drink, the complaint said.

Huber and Murphy were eventually placed on administrative leave, but not until top officials learned of the lawsuit, according to the New York Post.

Mountainside police haven’t commented on the complaints.

A California narcotics detective tipped off members of the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime groups to impending raids by federal officials – and even helped a top target evade arrest, authorities said Tuesday.

John Saro Balian, a 45-year-old veteran officer with the Glendale Police Department, is accused of lying to federal officials about his ties to crime groups in California. He was taken into custody without incident at his home Tuesday and is facing up to five years in federal prison.

“Mr. Balian moved in criminal circles and operated as though he was above the law by repeatedly lying to hide his criminal activity,” Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “His alleged actions impeded legitimate investigations into organized violent crime and consequently presented a threat to public safety.”

Balian was identified as a person of interest by the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force, which was probing ties between the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime.

According to the complaint, Balian was interviewed several times by federal agents last year where he repeatedly made false statements and misrepresentations about his alleged links to local criminal figures, including Jose Loza, a Mexican Mafia member and “shot-caller” for the Canta Ranas street gang.

Loza, who is facing federal racketeering charges, was communicating with Balian while in custody using burner cell phones to “discuss jointly undertaken criminal activities,” the complaint said.

In one interview with authorities, Balian reported said: “I’m not [expletive] on anybody’s payroll.”

However, three confidential informants painted a different picture.

The 47-page affidavit detailed cases in which Balian offered tips to gangsters-turned-informants about gang sweeps and even gave locations of marijuana grow and drug stash houses that were targeted by law enforcement.

“Cases involving corrupt public officials – and particularly those involving crimes allegedly committed by police officers – are among the most difficult and troubling matters we see,” U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna, of the Central District of California, said in a statement. “If the allegations in this case are proven, this police officer provided meaningful support to criminal enterprises, and his attempts to cover up his associations served to obstruct justice.”

Dramatic footage shows the moment a gunman fired a barrage of bullets at Indiana police officers in an ambush-style attack last week, highlighting the risk faced by law enforcement officers, a group President Trump praised Tuesday as "among the bravest Americans to ever live."

The Evansville Police Department on Tuesday released surveillance and body camera footage from the May 11 shootout, which police say showed 51-year-old Barry Freeman firing at officers and their vehicles for nearly an hour. Police are still trying to figure out a motive for the attack.

Freeman killed his neighbor before riddling the neighborhood with bullets, police said.

Officers responding to reported gunfire saw Freeman standing in a driveway with a rifle when he opened fire on them, Evansville Police Sgt. Jason Cullum said at a news conference Tuesday.

"Somehow, we managed to get through this without any officers being injured," he said.

While no members of law enforcement were injured or killed in Friday's shooting in Indiana, at least 36 law enforcement officers across the U.S. have died while on duty since the start of 2018, with 24 of the deaths caused by gunfire.

Roughly 135 cops died in 2016, making it the deadliest year for police officers in at least five years, Fox News found. While there were fewer deaths in 2017, the numbers weren’t much better: A total of 129 officers died last year. And 46 of those were caused by gunfire.

The video of the Indiana attack was released the same day President Trump paid tribute to fallen law enforcement officers, saying those who wore the uniform "were among the bravest Americans to ever live."

"They made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could live in safety and in peace," the president said.

During the shooting rampage Friday, police said Freeman fired "dozens" of rounds from an AR-15 and shotgun, striking four law enforcement vehicles, four houses and two businesses in the area.

A neighbor, 56-year-old Jeffrey Kempf, was fatally shot after encountering Freeman. Cullum said that Freeman mistook his neighbor for a law enforcement officer and shot him after Kempf went to check on neighbors to make sure they were safe after hearing gunshots.

OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2018

Cullum said that Freeman did not shoot at civilian vehicles that were passing by, only taking aim at law enforcement officials.

"He was targeting patrol cars because he thought there were police officers inside them," he said.

Authorities later gave a tour of one of the police vehicles that was riddled with bullet holes and had several windows shot out. One of the police cruisers had 23 bullet holes, according to FOX59.

Surveillance video obtained from a neighbor's home shows Freeman taking cover behind a vehicle in an "ambush attempt," and going into the driveway several times to shoot at police responding to the scene. Freeman did not have a criminal history, only receiving a traffic violation in recent years, and may have been intoxicated during the rampage, according to Cullum.

SON OF FALLEN INDIANA PATROLMAN GREETED BY 70 OFFICERS IN FIRST DAY BACK AT SCHOOL

"We were told by his son while this event was unfolding that he had prior military experience," Cullum said.

The rampage came to an end after Detective Kyle Thiry, a seven-year department veteran, shot Freeman twice in the chest from 63 yards away in a "dimly lit neighborhood," according to Cullum.

"Officer Thiry is credited with ending Mr. Freeman's rampage that night," he said Tuesday. "That is a testament to the skill and the calmness that Officer Thiry displayed that night in bringing peace back to that neighborhood."

He said it was unclear what set off Freeman.

"This is one that makes no sense to anyone that's involved,” Cullum said.

Fox News' Madeline Farber contributed to this report.

It was tough for the son of a fallen Indiana police officer to return to school Monday, more than a week after his father died in the line of duty -- but he was helped by some members of the community.

Dakota, the 5-year-old son of the late Terre Haute patrolman Rob Pitts, only asked if one of his dad’s friends could ride in his father’s police car on his way to school, according to FOX59. But when Dakota arrived, he was shocked to see who was there to greet him.

About 70 Terre Haute police officers and Virgo County Sheriff’s deputies greeted Dakota at the door to show him support on his first day back.

"He will definitely know his dad was a hero,” Pitts' sister, Kelli Jones, told WTHI-TV. “Blood doesn't always make family and I think the blue family went above and beyond.”

Pitts was killed earlier this month in a shootout with a homicide suspect who later died from injuries he suffered in the crossfire, authorities said.

The suspect opened fire from a second floor Terre Haute apartment building after he was approached by four investigators, police said. The suspect had been linked to an earlier homicide.

Pitts was the first Terre Haute officer to die in the line of duty since July 2011. He was a 16-year veteran of the police force.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Three Georgia police officers were released from the hospital Sunday after being sickened by chemical fumes when they encountered a dead body in a motel room, officials said.

Officials were called to the United Inn & Suites in Decatur just after 4 p.m. Saturday about a dead body in a room on the third floor, FOX5 Atlanta reported. Three Dekalb County police officers entered the room and reported feeling dizzy and nauseous after coming in contact with the chemical that had killed a 48-year-old man in the room.  

"Something in there made the officers sick," Fire Capt. Eric Jackson said on Saturday. 

The FBI responded to the scene and identified Sunday the chemical found in the room as a mix of household cleaners.

“Other than a combination of household cleaning solutions, no other harmful substances have been identified at this time,” police told Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

The officers were taken to the hospital and were said to be conscious and alert Saturday night.

Hotel guests near the contaminated room were evacuated shortly after the incident as a precaution. 

"The police were telling us to leave," one guest told FOX5. "We've been out of our room for three hours... What was really the cause?"

HAZMAT crews arrived at the scene and took samples of the substance. 

An autopsy will be conducted to determine the man’s cause of death, which is not being treated as a homicide.

Police did not release his name as of Sunday, and it’s unclear if the man was exposed to the substance accidentally or on purpose.

An Ohio deputy conducting a traffic stop Saturday was shot after a driver attempted to flee the scene before crashing his pickup truck into a pole, leading to a brief shootout, authorities said.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene in Franklin County just southwest of Columbus, Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

The Franklin County sheriff’s deputy, who was not identified, was attempting to stop a man in a black pickup truck just after 6:30 p.m. when the driver fled the area, Sheriff's Office Public Information Office Marc Gofstein told WSYX/WTTE.

The police pursuit lasted five to six minutes until the driver crashed his vehicle into a pole.

At some point, shots were fired, striking the deputy. He was taken to the hospital and is listed in stable condition following surgery, according to WSYX/WTTE.

OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2018

A witness named Josh told the Columbus Dispatch he saw the deputy approach the driver’s vehicle after the crash.

“The officer told him, ‘Get out, get out, get out,’” Josh said, adding that he then hear several shot fired.

“When you hear gunshots, you duck for safety, you know,” he added.

It’s unclear what led to the initial traffic stop. The suspect was killed during the brief shootout.  

The deputy is a seven-year veteran of the force. Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin described the deputy as “well-trained and well-respected by his peers.”

“Still a very active investigation, information will be made available when we have a chance. Thoughts and prayers are needed right now for one of our own!” Franklin County Sheriff’s Office tweeted Saturday night.

Another vehicle was hit as part of the chase just before the crash took place. The driver was not seriously injured, according to WSYX/WTTE.