It's not every day you see a zebra trotting down your street. Even more surprising is being a key part of helping that zebra get back to where it belongs. But this is exactly what happened to Corey Ortiz.
On the day when Ed, the now-famous zebra, escaped from his home in Rutherford County, Ortiz was having a yard sale.
"We were in our front yard and the zebra came down the street and went into the woods about two houses down."
Ortiz, a controls specialist at Vanderbilt University, captured it all on his security camera. After contacting authorities, Ortiz believed that Ed had been located and returned home. That was until the next day when he spotted fresh tracks near his house.
After setting up a trail cam, Ortiz was able to capture even more footage of Ed.
"He was trying to stay hidden. You could tell he was really intelligent. He was staying out of the open areas. When the helicopter came, that was the only time he would go into the open fields."
After reviewing the footage, Ortiz returned to the woods near his home to reset the trail camera- only to unexpectedly come face-to-face with Ed himself.
"We locked eyes and we both had the same reaction. We were both terrified and jumped back. He took off toward the creek, so luckily he didn't kick me or anything."
After days of searching Ed, was ultimately captured by helicopter and returned to his 250-acre home.
"When I saw the helicopter carrying him, I thought it was pretty cute. He looked like a Christmas ornament or something."
While most people may eventually forget about Ed the Zebra, Ortiz says he never will.
"We won't forget this. We'll be talking about it for years."
Our favorite social media posts from the saga of Ed the Zebra:
