Two pygmy goats followed passengers onto a TriMet FX2-Division bus near Southeast 162nd Avenue and Division Street on Wednesday, Aug. 12, slipping through the doors before anyone on board noticed.
Surveillance footage from the station shows the pair trotting behind riders as they boarded. The doors closed. It took a moment for the humans inside to register their new fellow commuters.
The bus operator spotted the goats and reopened the doors, and a couple of passengers helped shoo them back onto the sidewalk, KPTV reported. Other riders apparently carried on with their commute without ever realizing two goats had briefly joined the ride, reporter Hannah Seibold wrote in the Portland Tribune.
The incident came to TriMet's attention after someone called 911 to report two pygmy goats wandering loose near the intersection. Transit staff pulled up station camera footage and confirmed the sighting, then watched the full sequence unfold on video.
After their brief transit adventure, the goats wandered toward a shopping center near the northeast corner of SE 162nd and Division, where they disappeared from camera view. Portland Police Bureau officers searched the area but could not locate them. TriMet said no additional 911 calls about loose goats came in later that day.
The agency posted the footage to its official Instagram account, where it drew 46,000 likes and more than 1,200 comments by that afternoon. TriMet's caption posed three questions: where the goats came from, where they were going, and whether they had valid fare. The agency concluded that some questions may never be answered.
No owner has come forward. The goats have not been seen since.
The FX2-Division is TriMet's rapid bus line running 15 miles from downtown Portland to Gresham along Division Street. It features all-door boarding, which may explain how two small goats slipped on undetected. The line carries about 8,100 riders daily, though Wednesday's count briefly included two who lacked valid fare.
TriMet has not announced any policy changes regarding hooved passengers. Anyone with information about the goats' owner can contact Portland Police Bureau's non-emergency line.
