{"id":254966,"date":"2026-01-24T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/254966\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:38:08","slug":"cop-stops-short-after-spotting-unexpected-animal-using-crosswalk-at-4-a-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/254966\/","title":{"rendered":"Cop Stops Short After Spotting Unexpected Animal Using Crosswalk At 4 A.M."},"content":{"rendered":"

While on routine duty in New Jersey last week, Evesham Township Police<\/a>\u00a0officer Ian Traver spotted something that made him stop \u2014 not knowing at the time that it would be the highlight of his shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was patrolling a residential neighborhood at approximately 4 a.m., luckily driving very slow, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement from the curb,\u201d Traver told The Dodo.<\/p>\n

At first, Traver thought he\u2019d seen a skunk, so he reversed his patrol car to avoid being sprayed.<\/p>\n

But this was no skunk.<\/p>\n

Evesham Township Police<\/a><\/p>\n

As Traver looked on, the mysteriously fluffy figure stepped off the curb and began crossing the crosswalk \u2014 lugging a large object as it did so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI quickly noticed it was significantly bigger than a skunk, and dragging a branch,\u201d Traver said. \u201cI\u2019m an animal lover, particularly of wildlife, so once I shone my light on him, I knew it was a beaver immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that dark hour, most of the world was asleep in bed. But Traver was on the job, and sure enough, the beaver was too, in his own beaver way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite excited to witness him hard at work,\u201d Traver said. \u201cThe fact that he was crossing the street at the crosswalk was the cherry on top. It definitely made my encounter that much more memorable!\u201d<\/p>\n

Beavers, being primarily nocturnal, are most active at night. What Traver had witnessed was most likely one such animal collecting material to build a dam<\/a> in the nearby woods.<\/p>\n

Getty Images\/Troy Harrison<\/a><\/p>\n

In the end, Traver and the beaver went their separate ways. The thrill of that encounter, however, stuck with the officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking night shift definitely comes with its interesting experiences and observations,\u201d Traver said. \u201cBut crossing paths with the beaver at the perfect moment definitely made my night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Baby<\/a>Baby Beaver Is Obsessed With Building Dams In His Rescuer’s Doorways \u201cIt\u2019s cute but it\u2019s a lot\u201d \ud83d\ude02<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While on routine duty in New Jersey last week, Evesham Township Police\u00a0officer Ian Traver spotted something that made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61219,9544,85,46,18300,141,2865,12019,9542,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-254966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-beavers","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-new-jersey","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-stephen-messenger","16":"tag-the-dodo","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}