Hilarious footage shows a runaway rhea causing havoc for drivers as it sprinted through a sleepy village.<br /><br />The large flightless South American bird escaped from a farm near Repton, Derbys., on Sunday (28/4) afternoon. <br /><br />The rhea, which can reach speeds of up to 40mph, was spotted by window cleaner Robert Jay when it leapt in front of his car on Main Street.<br /><br />Robert, 46, and his wife Melanie, 43, were on their way home from doing a food shop when they filmed the bird.<br /><br />Dad-of-three Robert said: “At first I thought it was an ostrich. It jumped out in front of us from our customer's garden, luckily we were going slow enough. <br /><br />“We were coming back from shopping and thankfully we were going slow enough. <br /><br />"It was a crazy scene, something you don’t expect to see it. It was like something you’d see at a wildlife park.<br /><br />“It was on someone's front lawn taking a rest and then it jumped out in front of us. It obviously wanted a look around the village. <br /><br />"You could see people taking pictures and videos. We followed it at a safe distance for a few minutes and the it just veered off into someone else’s garden.”<br /><br />The bird was first spotted around 2pm on Sunday running along Main Street in Repton.<br /><br />Robert, who has one grandchild, added: "We followed it for a good few minutes, it was running quite quick. We didn’t want to scare it. <br /><br />“We’ve got lots of peacocks in the village but that is the biggest bird we’ve had. There are some farms around so we’re assuming it’s from one of those.<br /><br />“It was higher than the bonnet of my 4x4 Ford Kuga, it was quite big. It was quite shocking. We spotted it around 2pm on Sunday.<br /><br />"It made our day."<br /><br />The rhea was eventually captured and was reunited with its owner after being checked over by vets
