MINNEAPOLIS - This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, but Arnold, he became the crime-fighting pig of Clinton Avenue.
The 300-pound pet became a star attraction of the Minneapolis neighborhood after he saved his owner's bacon last February when two men accosted in her garage.
"I had left the side door open," his owner, Becky Moyer, said. "Pretty soon I felt this thing in my back like a gun." They went into the kitchen where Arnold was lying on the floor, and when Moyer began screaming, the pet pig sprang into action.
"He swung around and grabbed the guy right in the calf muscle." The man yelled, "There's a [expletive] pig in here!" and they ran out, Moyer said. Her other porcine pet, a 165-pound purebred Vietnamese pot belly named Axel, cowered under a chair.
"He was squealing as loud as I was," the 54-year-old remembered.
Police haven't arrested anyone in the incident, but it helped Arnold win an award from the Minneapolis police department, and made him a mascot in the crime-plagued Stevens Square neighborhood where Moyer lives.
"Everybody in the community knows him," she said. "They bring him all kinds of treats."
She explained she received Arnold about a year ago, as a gift from a "romantic friend." He was only 10 pounds at the time, she noted.
Moyer says she still doesn't have an alarm system for her home, but feels safe with Arnold around. And for those concerned about their own safety at home, she has some advice: "Buy a pig."
Stop! Thief! Come Back With That Garage!