Updated! With soundtrack!
When a Morristown police officer called his counterparts in Morris Township on Tuesday about a chase on South Street, there were some double-takes.
“Did he say cow?” Township Police Capt. Rich Ferrone asked a colleague.
(Strike up the Rawhide theme here.)
Yes, that’s exactly what the officer said.
In a maneuver that gives new meaning to “police roundup” and “hoofing the beat,” officers from Morristown and Morris Township escorted a wandering cow down busy South Street.
Police thought they had the critter boxed in at the Seaton Hackney stables, but the fugitive gave them the slip.
The low-speed chase continued to Harding, where the hirsute heifer found its way back to a farm on Van Beuren Road, according to Capt. Ferrone.
“We wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt–the public, or the animal,” said Lt. Stuart Greer of the Morristown police.
The cow first was spotted (actually, we did not notice any spots in the video) behind an apartment complex at 320 South St. in Morristown.
Morristown Council President Rebecca Feldman was bicycling on South Street near Southgate Parkway around 2 pm when she noticed the police caravan.
“I thought the motorcade was a funeral procession,” the councilwoman recounted. “Then I saw they were motor-herding!”
Our thanks to the Morristown police for the video, and to the police and the council president for the photos.
