'A What In The Roadway?' Cow Tip Draws Murrieta Cops To Steer Bovine Out Of Harms Way

MURRIETA, CA — The Murrieta Dispatch received a "cow tip" over the first weekend of the new year.

"There's a traffic hazard at Ivy and Washington," Dispatch coolly told officers. "It'll be a cow in the roadway."

"A what in the roadway?" The officers asked for clarity.

"A cow."

What happened next was reported on Murrieta's active social media pages.

"We’re used to chasing suspects… not cattle," a spokesperson for the department wrote on Facebook. "An adventurous cow took an unauthorized stroll in the roadway. Officers responded and safely reunited the escapee with a neighbor until the owners, who are out of town, could be contacted."

According to police, there were no injuries, no charges—just a brief case of beef with traffic, they wrote, adding that "all is well—case closed, pasture bedtime."

Murrieta police shared the call and footage with residents over social media, and over 150 people headed straight to the comments. None of them disappointed.

"A cow in the roadway is 'udderly' scary, but this fella is no 'cow-rd.'" One resident wrote.

"Mooooove along," another said.

"Glad it was able to steer clear of danger," according to another.

Overall, it's just fieldwork for the department that strives to engage its audience through social media posts.

One longtime resident, Cindy Thompson, shared that before the Murrieta Police Department was built, the lot had been used to graze cattle.

"I remember having to wait in my car when they'd move the herd across the street! That was in 1995," she said.

Another former resident, and Vista Murrieta High School graduate, chimed in. Rachel Mathews is now a dispatcher in Oklahoma and shared that while such interactions are par for the course in her new job, reading about this one in her hometown made her laugh out loud. "I get cattle at large calls literally every day here."