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Tiger Spotted at Disused Detroit Auto Plant After Photo Shoot: Reports

A live tiger was briefly on the loose in a disused factory in Detroit after it escaped during a photo shoot Monday, according to local media.
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A tiger was briefly on the loose in an abandoned factory in Detroit after it escaped during a photo shoot Monday, according to local media.

The big cat was rounded up at the crumbling Packard auto plant in the east of the city, where it had been taken along with a wolf and a bobcat, NBC station WDIV reported.

Video of the tiger being coaxed down from a stairwell was posted to social media.

The owners of the disused facility, which is being redeveloped, were aware of the photo shoot but had not given permission for animals to be there, WDIV said. The animals were accompanied by a trainer.

“I thought I was looking at a zoo,” security guard Anton Ferrell told the Detroit News. He said he spotted the some of the animals while checking the photographer’s group for permits.

"It was something else,” he told the newspaper. “I got on the phone immediately to call the boss. It went well. They left; no problems.”

Andy Didorosi, 28, told the Detroit Free Press he helped to secure the tiger.

"I got a call from a friend who asked me to help them get this tiger out of a staircase," he told the newspaper. "He asked me if I had a leafblower, and I said I had a weedwhacker, so he told me to bring that. ... I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my tools and hopped in my truck, because, you know, tiger.

"I don't know much about tiger logistics, but we were told to be this huge blue tarp monster with the weedwhacker and try to be scary and make loud noises. That just made him angry. You could say he got tiger rage, so we retreated."

He added: “He was growling the whole time, but I think he just wanted people to leave him alone.”

Image: The abandoned Packard auto assembly plant stands in Detroit, Michigan
The abandoned Packard auto assembly plant stands in Detroit, Michigan, on April 21.Bloomberg via Getty Images File