Horde of Pigs Goes Hog Wild in San Ramon

Yards in the California town look like they have been hit by a rototiller

A horde of pigs has gone hog wild in suburban San Ramon.

Over the last few months as many as 20 of the nocturnal beasts (at least, that's how one neighbor remembers it) have ripped up grass and turned over gardens in the California Bay Area community – all in the hot pursuit of grub. When homeowners in the Henry Ranch neighborhood awake, they've been shocked to find their manicured lawns all askew.

"It looks like a tornado has hopped from yard to yard," Carrie Spurlock said. "We've tried to deter them, but they keep coming back."
     
And it's not just Spurlock's lawn that has been wrecked.

One neighbor’s surveillance camera caught some pigs in action just two nights ago. Despite a trap set on the front lawn, they devoured their midnight snack of grubs unfazed.

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“They don't even go near the trap,” Jonathan Christensen said. “Look at the trap. They’re not interested, and they just tear up the lawn.”

Christensen said his yard has been hit twice now, his brand landscaping turned upside down.

A visit to the neighborhood by NBC Bay Area on Wednesday revealed a dozen or so front lawns looking like they had been professionally rototilled by the porcine critters destroying property in a neighborhood where home prices start at more than half-a-million dollars.

Neighbors have been frustrated with trying to get rid of the pigs. They've used pesticides to kill insects, which the pigs like to dine on. They've installed motion-sensor lights hoping that would keep the animals away. They said they've called the Department of Fish and Game but have got the runaround. And they've called a trapper, who set up 10 traps around the neighborhood.

All to no avail.

For now, neighbors are left to replant their grass and smooth out their bumpy lawns.

"We're very aggravated," Spurlock said. "They might even be a danger to people."

In all, the pigs’ feeding frenzy has left about a dozen yards a total mess.

“It does feel like we're under attack,” Spurlock said. “We've done everything we know to do to deter them, and they keep coming back.”

 

Wild pigs captured on cell phone video:

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