Udder chaos: Cow on the loose in Taylorville

TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — An "udderly" outrageous call in Taylorville: police were called to help wrangle a cow in the middle of town.

"The call started out with a report that there was a cow loose in the neighborhood," Patrol Officer Kirsten Beaman, of Taylorville Police, told WAND News.

Its not the call Taylorville Police were expecting to get Thursday.

"They went out, and there actually was a cow! A bull to be more precise," Officer Beaman explained.

Officers were trying to keep the bull from getting hit by traffic and causing "udder" chaos.

"The cow wasn't aggressive towards people, it was just scared and trying to get away" Officer Beaman said.

Officers, city employees and good Samaritans finally chased the bull to Taylorville Junior High School, and cornered it.

"Block it in while they worked on getting a lasso around it and then they were able to bring the trailer that the cow was in originally, to the scene, so that it could be loaded back up," Officer Beaman said.

She said they believe the cow was either at the vet and got loose, or the latch of its trailer malfunctioned on the way to the vet.

"The cow was able to go back to the vet to get checked out and is happily at home," Officer Beaman added.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first farm animal encounter for Taylorville Police Department.

"I've caught horses and donkeys, but those were just a little bit outside of town, where you don't see it very often. And then I think this is our second cow in a year," Officer Beaman told WAND News.

This left officers thinking, they might need to start preparing for the more unpredictable animal encounters.

"I think quite a few guys realized we probably should be carrying lassos or something and get trained in that," Officer Beaman.

No injuries were reported in this encounter.