We Talked to the Michigan Cop Who Took That Amazing Viral Photo of a Pig in a Police Cruiser

"It's kinda crazy how this has blown up," Sergeant Larry Rice of the Shelby Township, Michigan, Police Department says over the phone.

He's referring, of course, to the delightful picture he snapped of a pig in the backseat of Officer Kevin Treworgy's car last Thursday. You've probably seen that photo—just about every outlet on Earth has featured it online.

"A friend of mine lives over in Spain, in Madrid actually, and said she's got connections—she has friends all over Europe and stuff—and someone sent her a picture of the pig from Germany," Rice, who had no clue he was in possession of internet gold, tells VICE. "Honest to God, I would never in a million years have thought that."

The pig photo was a welcome break in the news cycle. We tend to talk about American police these days solely in the context of horrific incidents of brutality, a fact that isn't lost on these Michigan cops.

It's a "funny story, not shooting an unarmed subject, or choking somebody, or whatever," Officer Treworgy says. "Kind of a funny story for a change." Though not everyone was happy at all the attention brought to the department, he added: "Honestly, there's guys at work who are pissed off at looking like a bunch of hillbillies."

The pig was eventually returned to its owner, who Treworgy says wrestled it in the parking lot at the police station. But my primary interest was in Rice and his breakthrough as a photographer. Here's what he had to say.

VICE: How did you get involved in this incident in the first place?
Sergeant Larry Rice: When they dispatched me, I actually sent a message over computer to dispatch [to confirm it]. I said, "Was that a pig?!" When I pulled up, Officer Treworgy had the pig, he was kind of holding it, and he had a dog leash kind of wrapped around it. I pulled up and kind of started laughing. I couldn't believe Treworgy had a pig—I was expecting a potbelly pig that people have as pets. But it was a full-grown pig. He said, "I don't think I can hold him much longer." We went over there and [the pig] fought with us, put up a little bit of a fight, but we were able to get it over to the car.

Interested in pigs? Check out this MUNCHIES investigation of the Dutch farm where pigs go to be massaged until they die.

Once you got the pig in the car, it kinda wrecked it, right?
She didn't actually wreck the car, but we put her in there and once we got her in there, we were cracking up and there were a couple neighborhood people watching. I looked over at Treworgy and said, "Dude, I gotta get a picture of this," went to my car, grabbed my phone, took a couple pictures. At that point, she was just looking out the window.

Did you expect these photos to make noise online?
We were kinda shocked. Seriously, I just sent it to some of the guys on shift. I sent a picture to my wife and some of the guys that were off at the time. Treworgy asked me to send him some of the pictures, and then he ended up talking to Leslie Heisler—an officer in charge of our Facebook page—and then it just blew up from there. The next thing you know, a couple hours later, I was in the Lieutenant's office and we got a phone call from the media wanting to know about the pig.

Do you take other pictures? Is photography a passion of yours?
It was literally just me grabbing my cell phone. If you were to look at my cell phone, 99 out of 100 pictures are of my kids and then there's like two or three pictures of the pig. All I did was walk over to the back window and take some pictures, and it wasn't even something where I could make sure it was zooming in [properly] or anything. If you've seen the picture that's been all over the internet, there's major glare. When I take pictures of my kids, I try to be [careful].

How does this stack up to other crazy shit you've seen on the job?
Honestly, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. I've been a police officer for going on 18 years, and four of 'em was in Detroit. But [when it comes to] lightheartedness and fun, this will be up there, will be something everybody will be referencing [forever]. My dad was a police officer and he ended up having to chase down an actual bull that was running around their town all over the place. My dad had the bull, I have the pig now. It's kinda funny. I've seen bad stuff and I've seen funny stuff and, actually, we always like to just talk about the good, funny stuff.

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