Night patrol police are used to seeing foxes, rabbits and badgers - but not chinchillas.
PCs Bob Hartwell and Richard Mitchell found the South American rodent stranded in the middle of the A272 just outside Newick, Lewes, at 1.30am.
PC Mitchell said: "It was sitting looking at us, dazzled by the lights of our patrol car.
"Both of us took a double-take."
The officers captured the chinchilla and took it back to Lewes police station.
PC Mitchell said: "We put the animal in our kennels where it was fed and given water. We made it comfortable until the morning when we passed it on to the RSPCA."
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