Road hog: Distracted driving stop finds pet pig behind the wheel

People do all kinds of crazy things behind the wheel that they should not: putting on makeup, reading, surfing the web, even clipping their fingernails.

But Chisago Co. Sheriff's Sgt. Jason Foster found a doozie back in October.

"It came in as a driving complaint on I-35 in the area of Rush City," said spokesman Kyle Puelston. He said the caller that was following the truck thought it was a possible drunk driver because the driver was crossing the centerline and drifting onto the shoulder.

Another sheriff's sergeant, Jason Foster, headed out in his squad car onto the interstate to take a look.

"He found the truck, made the traffic stop on it and walked up to the driver, explained the complaint and asked what was going on. The driver told the deputy "'Well, I just got my pet pigs on my lap.' There were actually two of them," Puelston said. The deputy snapped a picture of the situation from the passenger window. "The second [pig] was a smaller one that wasn't in that picture. He had one of them on his lap, and that was causing his driving conduct."

Foster "couldn't stop laughing," Puelston said. Foster warned the driver to be more careful and sent him and his pigs on their way. "Mainly, the type of distracted driving is on the phone, text messaging, eating food, changing radio stations. Those are the types of things we see routinely, but this was a first," Puelston said.

Puelston posted the photo of the driver — pig on his lap — on the Chisago County Sheriff's Office's Twitter feed on Tuesday. He says it's part of the sheriff's office campaign to curb distracted driving ahead of Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April.