Mystery of Gracie the giraffe deepens as sheriff calls recapture claims a tall story

Sheriff in rural Texas says ‘it’s still at large’ after claim Gracie had been located after wandering off private ranch For almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing giraffe called Gracie that wandered off from a private game ranch. On Wednesday, the mystery of the free-roaming mammal’s odyssey deepened further, when a local sheriff disputed an account that it was reportedly found safe a “little farther out than expected” from its hill country home, and said the search was most definitely still on. “The giraffe has not been located. It’s still at large,” said Nathan Johnson, sheriff of Real county. “It’s frustrating, and it’s more appalling that there’s people who have no idea what they’re talking about, putting things on the internet as if it was fact,” he added. During the almost week and half she has been missing, Gracie, a reticulated giraffe native to several eastern African countries, has become something of a celebrity in the region around Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, a town of about 700 residents a two-hour drive west of San Antonio. Word spread quickly on the internet, and Johnson’s office appealed in a news release fo