Phoenix - A weeks-old pygmy baby goat that was believed stolen from a petting zoo at the Arizona State Fair was found safe and sound and has been reunited with his crying mother, officials said.
GusGus, who had been missing for some 20 hours, was reunited with his mom at the state fairgrounds in Phoenix after an unidentified man dropped him off at a pet store in the west of the city, officials said.
The man told staff at the shop he had been walking his dog by a dry canal when he spotted the tiny goat.
“GusGus is fine. He was just hungry and was happy to see his mom,” said Sarah Kupelian, a petting zoo manager who picked him up at the store and witnessed the reunion. “We're glad to have our baby back.”
Authorities had made a public plea for help in finding the goat, who was with his mother when they believe he was snatched by someone reaching over a low fence at the event's popular petting zoo.
State troopers had searched for the little goat, who weighs no more than 5 pounds (2.3kg) and could have been hidden under the thief's jacket, or even in a purse, officials said.
“He is accustomed to being touched, so he wouldn't scream his little head off when someone picked him up,” Karen Searle, the fair's livestock director, said before GusGus' return.
Searle said the kid's mother, Custard, had been crying since they were parted.
Officials had said they were concerned for his survival because he was so young, small and needed his mother, and they had promised no questions would be asked if he were given back.
“This is just incredible,” Kupelian said. “We were all hoping that we would get a happy ending, and we did.”
Reuters