Runaway steer goes on the lamb in north suburbs – leads cops on wild chase

Police officers from multiple agencies descended on a tranquil Park Ridge street Thursday morning — a place where the last of the spring daffodils were blooming and where coyotes occasionally come to soak up the sun.

Residents were told to stay inside and to keep very quiet. But police didn’t draw their guns. There wasn’t a Taser in sight.

Rita Thorpe, 81, knew it was safe to come outside when she heard the mooing. The escapee had been apprehended.

“I texted my kid and said, ‘How many cops does it take to catch a runaway cow in Park Ridge?’” Thorpe explained a little later in the day.

Actually, it took some professional help from Wagner Farm in Glenview — guys who came with a trailer and a plentiful supply of hay.

The cow — actually a steer — along with a pig and some chickens came from Northridge Preparatory School in Niles, a little more than a mile away.

“The students were apparently involved in what was described as a ‘senior prank’ by bringing live animals to the school,” according to a Niles Police Department news release. “During the activity, a live cow escaped from the students and went into the local neighborhood.”

Late Thursday morning, all that remained of the prank on school grounds was a portable wooden pen with straw scattered inside. A school representative had no comment for a Chicago Sun-Times reporter.

A little later, Niles police released another statement, saying the animals had been purchased on Craigslist, with the steer coming from near Winneconne, Wisconsin, and the pig from Dixon, Illinois. The chickens belonged to a student, police said.

Police also said school administrators “refused to pursue any criminal charges,” but that they were conducting an internal investigation.

The students were issued village of Niles ordinance citations and will be required to appear in Niles Adjudication Court. Among the citations: disorderly conduct and animal feces accumulation-not permitted.

Roberta Barker got a close-up look at the steer. She said she was in bed about 7 a.m. when she heard lots of voices coming from outside. The steer, it turns out, was in her backyard on Beau Drive in Park Ridge.

“I came to the window and looked out and I saw police officers. Then I got a little alarmed because I thought maybe there had been a break-in,” Barker said.

She watched the Wagner Farm folks tease the animal onto the trailer.

“They told me when it first arrived it was pretty agitated and then it sat down and it was calming down,” she said.

A little while later, the only evidence of the episode was a pile of hay.

“It was an adventure, a little excitement for Park Ridge, which is typically pretty quiet,” Barker said.

A Wagner Farm spokeswoman said the steer had been taken to an animal rescue center. No information was provided about the fate of the pig or the chickens.