POLK COUNTY, TX—In a bizarre turn of events, Polk County resident Billy Bob Jenkins mistook an armadillo for a zombie and promptly called the Sheriff’s Office for backup.

The incident unfolded late last night in the small town of Onalaska, when Jenkins, a self-proclaimed zombie apocalypse enthusiast, was taking out the trash in his backyard. According to Jenkins, he spotted what he believed to be a zombie lurking near his trash cans.

Panicked and armed with only a wooden baseball bat, Jenkins dialed 911 and reported a potential zombie sighting on his property. Sheriff Smith and his deputies arrived on the scene prepared for the worst, only to find Jenkins engaged in a tense standoff with a confused armadillo.

“I could have sworn that thing was a zombie,” Jenkins explained to the officers. “It was making weird noises and moving all slow like those walkers from ‘The Walking Dead.’ I had to protect my family!”

After a few moments of laughter and disbelief, Sheriff Smith managed to safely capture the armadillo and released it back into the wild. Jenkins was given a stern warning about the dangers of misidentifying wildlife, especially in a region where armadillos are a common sight.

In an exclusive interview with eastexasnews.com, Jenkins admitted, “I guess I let my imagination get the best of me. But hey, better safe than sorry, right?”

The Sheriff’s Office has since urged residents to remain calm and refrain from calling emergency services for non-urgent wildlife encounters. Meanwhile, Jenkins has gone viral on social media as the “Armadillo Apocalypse Survivor” of East Texas.