Cleveland police officers received a strange call during rush hour on Monday evening. A young bull was reported running loose near East 123rd Street and Superior Avenue in Cleveland.
The small bull, which police are calling "Punch," based on the name on his ear-tag, is now resting safely in a small pasture at the Cleveland Mounted Police stables on East 38th Street.
"Received the call at home yesterday from another officer saying that, you know, they needed the truck and trailer because there's a loose cow on the east side of the city," said Officer Charles Lipscomb, who responded to the call and took questions from media Tuesday with Punch resting in the shade nearby.
"The other officer, his family has a cattle farm, so he has a little more experience than I do," said Lipscomb. "I got the truck and trailer. We met the officers out on scene who had wrangled him into a yard that was all fenced in."
The officers were successfully able to wrangle Punch and get him into the trailer. Police reported that Punch is a bit malnourished but in general good health.
So far there are no clues as to where Punch came from.
"We're hoping the owner will step forward, you know, but even still, once we get that, we're still going to talk to other authorities, other divisions," said Lipscomb. "Ohio has a livestock division, so we'll try to get a hold of them to see what we do from here, see if there's any violations with that, and make sure the animals are in good health and go from there."
Lipscomb made sure to mention the skills of his fellow officer, Richard Rusnak, who had the know-how to corral Punch.
"We got lucky that Officer Rusnak has come from that family of, you know, working with cows. So he had a lot more experience than any one of us did," said Lipscomb.
Punch is in relatively good spirits, according to Lipscomb, but that doesn't mean he's ready for a stream of visitors.
"He's slowly settling into his environment. He's been freaked out since all the running around last night. So he still hasn't completely warmed up to anybody," said Lipscomb. "He's kind of confrontational because he is a bull, after all."
Correction: The headline of this story was edited to reflect that the bull was corralled in Cleveland, not East Cleveland.
