‘Rogue’ cows wandering near California Safeway get police escort home, video shows

A high-speed chase this was not.

Police in Sebastopol, California, released dashcam footage this week showing officers slowly but surely driving two cows out of the North Bay town early Tuesday morning.

The cattle had been hanging out downtown in the Sonoma County city, not far from a Safeway grocery store, police wrote in a Facebook post.

“Imagine the udder surprise of our officers when they were dispatched to a report of rogue bovine,” officers wrote in the post.

Video shows that the cattle were discovered early enough Tuesday that the sun hadn’t risen.

Footage catches the cows ambling up Healdsburg Avenue as a police cruiser slowly follows from behind. For the most part, the cows did stay on the right side of the road and in the correct lane — though the pair occasionally hugged center line, and eventually roved into the lane that would have brought oncoming traffic, video shows.

Luckily, there appeared to be no other cars on the road.

“Our officers escorted the wandering herd safely back to their field,” police said.

The video has been viewed about 14,000 times and shared more than 170 times on Facebook as of Thursday afternoon.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department’s Facebook page commented on the police Facebook post, commending the officers for “solid work.”

Sebastopol police responded to say thanks.

“We almost felt like deputies for a minute!” the department wrote.

This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 2:33 PM with the headline "‘Rogue’ cows wandering near California Safeway get police escort home, video shows."