Five Rat Traps Caught an Officer. The Rat Got Away.

The rat escaped. The police officer needed help getting out of five sticky traps.

That’s the outcome of an actual alarm response in San Mateo, California. Whatever the intended arrangement between the building, the rat and the pest-control equipment, this was not it.

According to the San Mateo Police Department’s account, documented in Patch’s September 25 report, officers responded to an activated business alarm on Wednesday night, September 23, 2026. They found an unsecured door but no signs of burglary.

Then a large rat appeared.

The department said an officer screamed, jumped around and became caught on five sticky traps.

Five deserves a moment here. One sticky trap is an unpleasant surprise. Five is an unexpected relationship with the floor.

There’s no need to judge the scream. A large rat appearing without an appointment is entitled to an honest customer response. People like to imagine they’d handle these things calmly, usually while seated somewhere that has no visible rat.

The problem was the equipment. The traps demonstrated considerable enthusiasm for sticking to things and a disappointing grasp of the assignment. It’s the pest-control equivalent of a spam filter that blocks your paycheck notification while waving through an urgent message from the Ministry of Gift Cards.

Technically working. Functionally, we have concerns.

The officer’s partner rushed over. The rat crossed that officer’s boot, and the partner helped free the trapped officer.

So both officers had a footwear-related encounter, but only one needed assistance afterward. The rat, meanwhile, escaped.

That’s a particularly irritating detail. Five traps managed to catch an officer, while the animal they were meant for crossed a police boot and got away. At that point, the boots were contributing more to the rat’s transportation needs than the traps were contributing to pest control.

Police teamwork gets described in some fairly grand language. Here it came down to helping a colleague separate himself from adhesive. Not glamorous. Still useful. A good partner is a good partner, even when the immediate operational objective is getting your shoes back.

The published account doesn’t establish what triggered the alarm. There’s no basis for blaming the rat for that, too. It already occupies enough of this incident without being assigned responsibility for the building’s security system.

What the account does give us is a beautifully backward result: no signs of burglary, a rat that escaped and pest-control equipment that required police assistance to stop holding onto a police officer.

Strong adhesive. Weak hiring criteria.

Sources

• 'You Dirty Rat': San Mateo Police Get A Sticky Surprise While Responding To Burglary Call (2026-09-25)
• Literal ‘Dirty Rat’ Puts California Cop In A Very Sticky Situation (2026-09-25)

Information checked: October 5, 2026.