Police in Norfolk, Nebraska, responded to a call unlike any they had received before….a report that a bull was riding shotgun in a car.
Norfolk Police Division Captain Chad Reiman told news outlets that they received a call saying that someone was driving through town with a cow in their car.
“They thought that it was going to be a calf, something small or something that would actually fit inside the vehicle,” Reiman said.
But, when authorities found the car, the calf was, in fact, a full-grown Watusi bull named Howdy Doody. It’s no surprise that authorities pulled over the vehicle driven by Lee Meyer of Neligh, Nebraska. The car, a retired police Ford Crown Victoria, was “customized” to fit the bull. Half of the windshield and roof have been removed and a metal cattle gate allows the bull to be secured in the side of the car.
A sign attached to the cattle gate states that Howdy Doody and Meyer won an award for Best Car Entry in last month’s Nebraska’s Big Rodeo Parade. Meyer told authorities that he has a trailer he usually carries the bull in, but failed to explain why Howdy Doody was riding shotgun this time around.
“The officer wrote him some warnings,” Reiman said. “There were some citable issues with that situation. The officer chose to write him a warning and ask him to take the animal back home and leave the city.”
A Norfolk news outlet that captured video of the traffic stop reached out to Meyer for a statement, but he didn’t answer his phone. His wife Rhonda, however, told the station that Howdy Doody has been a “friend and buddy” to her husband for the last eight years or more.
See a video of the traffic stop below.