A wild pursuit ended with three zebras in custody, but one still on the lam, after the quartet made a break for it from a trailer near North Bend, Washington.

Sunday took an unexpected turn when the striped escapees decided to give the authorities and baffled onlookers a run around eastbound I-90. In a scene straight out of an animal comedy, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol confirmed that the four-legged fugitives made their dash for freedom around 1 p.m. when their owner - transporting them to Montana - stopped to secure the trailer, as reported by KING5 News. While the Washington State Patrol and community members managed to recapture three of the zebras, one remains unaccounted for.

Social media was abuzz with images and videos of the surreal chase, as people posted clips of the zebras evading officers on the road. These visuals, according to KIRO 7, captured the somewhat comical effort by police to wrangle the runaway animals back to safety.

As troops and locals rallied together, Trooper Rick Johnson expressed his amazement on social media, saying, "This is a first for me and all [State Patrol] troopers involved. Craz" he posted. NBC affiliate KING of Seattle conveyed the befuddlement of South Fork restaurant regular Jon-Erick Anes and others as they witnessed the unexpected zebra soiree. "They just started hanging out in the grass in somebody’s yard across the street," Anes recounted to NBC News.

The zebra wrangling effort even included the impromptu assistance of a rodeo clown, per local Whitney Blomquist. "They had a rodeo clown who was on his way, I guess to a rodeo, and they were using him to help corral," Blomquist told NBC News. Meanwhile, the King County Sheriff’s Office and King County animal control are urging anyone with information on the remaining zebra's whereabouts to come forward.