SHARE
COPY LINK

COW

Fugitive cow outwits police for 4 weeks before capture

Kaiserslautern police sent out helicopters to track down Johanna. But again and again the canny cow slipped through the net of the law.

Fugitive cow outwits police for 4 weeks before capture
Hot Fuzz. File photo: DPA

The wild goose chase is finally over. Western Germany can sleep easy again at night.

After fruitlessly searching for an elusive fugitive for a whole month, police in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate made a triumphant announcement on Tuesday. The net had been closed on the runaway – the cops had got their man.

Well, man might not be exactly the right description. This was a female for a start. And she was one of the four-legged variety.

A month ago a plucky bovine dodged a bullet when she escaped from a slaughterhouse in Kaiserslautern, reports broadcaster SWR.

Police subsequently received reports from multiple worried road users who reported seeing a brown cow tromping towards the city centre.

Several police helicopters were dispatched to hunt the escapee, who has since been named Johanna.

Although officers spotted her now and then, Johanna immediately disappeared again each time, and police abandoned the search in frustration.

But, after a couple of weeks, the slippery beast once again ventured out into the public eye, walking down a street.

When cops moved in though, Johanna was already gone. She had fled into a nearby forest where, among the trees, she was practically impossible to trace.

Perhaps embittered that the humans who had raised her to adulthood now wanted to put her on a plate, Johanna turned to ever more radical means.

She began straying onto railway tracks, disrupting the service between Kaiserslautern and Landstuhl on several occasions.

A reward was placed on her head (by an animal welfare organization). But one professional animal catcher soon gave up, claiming the bovine simply couldn't be found.

As is so often the case with free spirits of her nature though, Johanna eventually rode her luck too far.

Her next target was a factory owned by the car maker Opel. At 3am on Tuesday she crossed into the premises. What devious plan she had in mind, only she knows. But security guards caught her movements on CCTV and alerted the fire brigade.

By the time Johanna noticed that she was being tailed, it was too late. As she turned to make a getaway, firemen drove her into a closed-off area and her dramatic time on the run was over.

But the story doesn't end there. Johanna's life is to be spared.

In the next few days, she will be taken to an animal sanctuary in northern Rhineland-Palatinate to live out her days. But the animal keepers there will no doubt be under strict instructions to keep a very close eye on her.

With DPA.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

COW

Danish police shoot ‘aggressive’ cow after escape from abattoir

An “aggressive” cow was pursued and lethally shot by police in Aarhus after it broke free from an abattoir and caused temporary closure of the city’s light rail.

Danish police shoot 'aggressive' cow after escape from abattoir
A file photo of a different cow. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

The Letbanen light rail was forced to briefly close after the cow, a heifer, escaped from Aarhus Slagterhal, an abattoir in the city.

The incident resulted in police shooting and killing the animal.

Police were informed of the escape just before 9am on Tuesday and sent a number of patrol vehicles to the city’s harbour area. The chase was over by 9:42, East Jutland Police wrote on Twitter.

The animal was described as “aggressive” and “potentially dangerous” by people who called police to report it, police said.

The animal was shot on the Østhavnsvej road at the harbour, police confirmed, but were unable to initially state the exact number of shots fired.

Knud Erik Nielsen, a manager at the abattoir, told broadcaster DR that the heifer was able to escape because of the temporary removal of a fence for works at the facility.

“I can’t remember when this last happened. The last time is certainly five to ten years ago,” Nielsen told DR Nyheder.

READ ALSO: Escaped cows cause chaos on Copenhagen highway

SHOW COMMENTS