Portland police officer stops car chase to help duck

A Portland, Ore., police officer in pursuit of a speeding car, put the chase on hold to help a duck in distress.

In a dash-cam video released by the Portland Police Bureau, viewers are treated to what looks like the beginning of an exciting high-speed chase. A car zooms past a hiding police cruiser, and then Officer Mark James begins the pursuit.

But not long into the chase (the video above has been sped up), James sees a duck crossing the busy road. Rather than leave it to fend for itself, he pulls over and guides it to safety.

[Related: Giant rubber duck sails into Hong Kong harbor]

James then resumes his pursuit, but by then the speeder had escaped. The upside: The officer's actions made plenty of people happy.

On YouTube, the comments were nearly across-the-board positive.

One commenter wrote, "I can't love this enough!!!"

Another said, "This conversation, in conjunction with the video, make me want to move to Portland. I mean .... nice police officers? It's a utopia!"

But not everyone was convinced the duck was as innocent as it looked. A conspiracy-minded commenter wrote, "What if the guy from that speeding car left ducks on road to distract the police car and run away? :D"