Sometimes it can be pretty hard to catch a criminal, as we’ve learned from the countless detective dramas we’re all hooked on. Other times, however, you get a herd of cows that decide to help you:
That’s exactly happened in Sanford, Florida according to the audio from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office helicopter video, which states that a groups were chasing a car thief after she started running through their field.
“The large group of cows is following her,” a helicopter operator with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office can be heard saying in the video.
“Looks like they may attack her.”
Officers said that they had spotted a stolen SUV as it attempted to make a traffic stop. According to the police report, the driver eventually crashed into a ditch – before one of the passengers, Jennifer Kaufman, ran off into the cow pasture while another stayed at the crash scene and was arrested.
Driver Jamie Young was found hiding in some bushes nearby, but it took surveillance from the skies to track down Kaufman.
As the helicopter circled overhead, it used an infrared camera to provide visibility through the evening darkness, apparently looking for the ‘large group of cows’ that had started chasing the suspect.
Ronny Neal, a public information officer for the Sanford Police, said that he isn’t sure if 47-year-old Kaufman knew she was running into a field of 20 cows – but does reckon that the bovine intervention helped cops pinpoint her.
“They did assist,” Neal told the Washington Post.
“I’m sure she probably heard something.”
According to WKMG, the cows belong to Richard Kondracki, who said that the cows on his property have never been aggressive in the past.
“I think they didn’t realise who they were,” Kondracki told WKMG.
“They panicked. The cows were nervous. That would make me panic – if all those big cows come running at you. They didn’t know them. They don’t know if they’re there to hurt them, or steal one of the babies.”
He added: “You don’t want to mess with it – any animal, whether it’s a cow, an elephant or a cat. You don’t mess with the babies.”
Young, Kaufman and the other passenger were eventually charged with petty theft, drug possession, trespassing and resisting an officer.
As for the cows? Well they’re probably all bragging to their mates about their new vigilante credentials.
