Transit crews spotted Roo, the dog, in a tunnel near 16th and Mississippi streets and were able to return him to his owner.
Jul 30, 2026
Updated 12:12 pm PT
A southbound Caltrain emerges from a tunnel in San Francisco, California, on Jan. 13, 2017. San Francisco Animal Care and Control officers lead Roo out of a Caltrain tunnel near 16th and Mississippi streets, where he had spent close to two days. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
A runaway dog is back home safe after spending two days in a San Francisco Caltrain tunnel.
Caltrain crews who spotted a dog inside a rail tunnel near 16th and Mississippi streets assumed he was dead until one of them saw the dog lift his head, said Deb Campbell, a spokesperson for San Francisco Animal Care and Control. That sent two of the agency’s officers into the tunnel with the flashlights on their phones.
Animal Control Officers Bri Borg and Stephanie Pone found the dog, Roo, huddled against a wall. He had been there close to two days, Campbell said, as trains passed by him.
“We get a lot of animals that have microchips, but nobody has gone and registered them,” she said, adding that registering one takes a few minutes.
Tunnel rescues are not unusual for the agency, which has pulled animals out of BART and Muni tunnels before, and has had trains stopped for dogs that hunkered down and would not move.
What made Roo’s case different was how long he was in the tunnel.
“Thankfully, the Caltrain people were very alert and on it and noticed this,” Campbell said.