{"id":417771,"date":"2026-07-30T08:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417771\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:37:12","slug":"terrified-pup-survives-2-days-in-pitch-black-california-tunnel-before-dramatic-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/417771\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrified pup survives 2 days in pitch-black California tunnel before dramatic rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A runaway rescue dog survived two days trapped inside a dark San Francisco railway tunnel before crews finally pulled the frightened pup to safety Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Roo, a 2-year-old pit bull mix, disappeared just days after being adopted and was eventually spotted by Caltrain operators hunkered down inside a Potrero Hill rail tunnel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The first day train operators saw him &amp; thought he was a dead animal. The 2nd day a driver saw him move. He was so still they thought he had been hit by a train and was injured,&#8221; the San Francisco Animal Care and Control (SFACC) said in <a data-ylk=\"slk:a video posted on Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DbXPoVhBxjY\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">a video posted on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Officers went inside the tunnel to rescue Roo Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"561\" height=\"755\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/623ed0faaf51f1b989c89cd8cbc76ab3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Officers went inside the tunnel to rescue Roo Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Train operators first thought he was dead Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"575\" height=\"701\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/ae1c31b15a603d640a9b2604700e8522.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Train operators first thought he was dead Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A driver saw Roo move the second day Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"566\" height=\"743\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/3d1663ee27540953bb50088ab93e93bf.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A driver saw Roo move the second day Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Animal control officers teamed up with Caltrain staff to venture into the pitch-black tunnel and retrieve the terrified dog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Officer Pone &amp; Officer Borg went into the dark tunnel with Caltrain staff to find the dog. It turns out he hadn&#8217;t been hit by a train. He was just scared &amp; hunkered down there for 2 days,&#8221; <a data-ylk=\"slk:SFACC;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfanimalcare.org\/about-us\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">SFACC<\/a> further said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman said the bizarre rescue is far from typical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;This is pretty unlikely. Typically dogs do not like spending time around trains \u2013 they&#8217;re loud and scary and they typically are not hanging out around them,&#8221; Lieberman <a data-ylk=\"slk:told The San Francisco Chronicle;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/caltrain-dog-rescue-22366199.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">told The San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"The 2-year-old Pitbull mix was reunited with his owner Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"554\" height=\"621\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/4021d70f3bfe4b2f3d92051ee7d85099.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 2-year-old Pitbull mix was reunited with his owner Instagram\/sfanimalcareandcontrol<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"San Francisco Animal Care &amp; Control on 1419 Bryant Street  Google\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"818\" height=\"583\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/california_post_772\/11f08f2746ce47142cf21215a91c20aa.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>San Francisco Animal Care &amp; Control on 1419 Bryant Street Google<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Roo had bolted in a panic shortly after being adopted, but his microchip ultimately helped reunite him with his owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SFACC, the city&#8217;s taxpayer-funded animal shelter, provides housing and medical care for &#8220;stray, lost, abandoned, sick, injured, and surrendered animals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The rescue comes just weeks after the shelter <a data-ylk=\"slk:saved a goose that was struggling to swim;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DbCnIo9BcTf\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">saved a goose that was struggling to swim<\/a> at a local park. Officers brought the bird back to the shelter, where it received treatment.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A runaway rescue dog survived two days trapped inside a dark San Francisco railway tunnel before crews finally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147017,7,9,8,5448,167078,167079,167077,167076,101],"class_list":["post-417771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-animal-control-officers","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-caltrain","tag-dan-lieberman","tag-pit-bull-mix","tag-potrero-hill-rail-tunnel","tag-railway-tunnel","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}