A stowaway hen hitched a ride in the back of a lorry for more than 20 miles in its very own version of the Chicken Run films.
The hitch-hiking hen, managed to travel a whopping 25 miles before anyone realised it had escaped.
It climbed into a trailer at a farm in Hartwell, Northamptonshire, before making its way to the town of Irthlingborough.
The chicken was eventually spotted running around a cul-de-sac by a resident who asked the maintenance workers if it belonged to them.
The workers, who were repairing potholes, managed to recapture the hen and put it safely in the lorry’s cab.
Its escape evoked the plot of animated children films Chicken Run, in which Ginger, the hen’s ringleader, devises a plan to escape a farm by jumping over a fence.
Luke Stinson, one of the workers, said: ‘I left the farm where these lorries are stored, drove past the A45 past Billing, to Irthlingborough to carry out some maintenance work on the roads.
‘We stopped outside a gentleman’s house and the chap said: ‘Is that your chicken?’ I said: ‘What chicken?’, whereupon me and the helpful gentleman ran round the cul-de-sac chasing the chicken and rescued it.
‘We’re going to take it back to the farm where it belongs.
‘It’s done some miles and it’s been sat on the back of the lorry going 56mph on the dual carriageway, so it’s done bloomin’ well to get here. I just can’t believe it – it’s a 25-mile drive,’ he added.
He said he shared his tuna sandwich with the hen and fed it water from his tea mug before taking her back to the farm.