By Hannah Drown
cleveland.com
NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — The North Ridgeville Police Department’s unofficial side gig as a barnyard recovery unit continued Monday evening, when four horses took over Center Ridge Road at rush hour — the latest episode in the department’s ever-growing anthology of fugitive critter roundups.
According to police, officers were dispatched around 5 p.m. on Nov. 10 after multiple 911 callers reported horses in the roadway.
“There [are] four horses running down Center Ridge currently,” one caller told dispatchers, according to audio released by police. “Heading to Cleveland Street just passed Maddock going towards Elyria.”
The audio from 911 calls, along with dash and body cam footage, were uploaded to Facebook by the North Ridgeville Police Department. View the whole video above.
North Ridgeville Police Capt. Greg Petek told cleveland.com that the equine escapees — including one named Joey — led officers on roughly a mile-long pursuit. After about 30 minutes of what police jokingly called “horseplay,” officers, with help from residents and the horses’ owners, successfully secured the animals and escorted them home safely.
While the sight of four horses trotting down a major thoroughfare during the evening commute certainly turned heads, Petek said North Ridgeville gets enough livestock escapees that Monday’s equine march barely registers as bizarre.
Among the department’s animal adventures over the years was the now-legendary 2019 chase involving a cow named Moodini.
According to a Facebook post the police department shared at the time, the chaos began when “a cow fell out of a truck” on Root Road. Officers described the escapee as “making a concerted effort at freedom,” noting that “they are trying to corral the fastest cow I’ve ever seen, though in fairness, my experience with cows is quite limited.”
What followed was a zigzagging pursuit across roads, a close call with a Subaru, and even a brief moment of triumph when officers chased the cow into an open garage — only for him to bolt back out the rear door. Officers wrote that the cow sprinted toward State Route 10 and found “the only hole in the perimeter fence,” prompting one officer to choose “ninja warrior” tactics to head him off before he reached highway traffic.
Eventually, assistance from the owner — who released two more cows as bait, “which seems like an absolutely horrible idea” — helped lure the escape artist back into the trailer. Only then did officers learn his name: “Moodini.”
As the police department’s post put it: “I literally could not have made that up if I wanted to and it is absolutely fitting.”
Just a year earlier, officers found themselves in another memorable standoff — this time with a pig.
In a May 2018 Facebook post, the department recounted a 5:26 a.m. call from a man walking home who reported he was “being followed by a pig and didn’t know what to do.” Officers initially assumed the caller was drunk, describing him as an “obviously drunk guy walking home from the bar at 5:26 in the morning.”
But when they arrived, they found “a very sober male walking eastbound on Center Ridge near Maddock Rd. from the actual Amtrak train station in Elyria, not the bar. Oh, and he was being followed by a pig,” according to the Facebook post.
An officer managed to “wrangle (I think this is the correct word to use) said pig into his cruiser,” placing it temporarily in the station’s “pig pens.....er, dog kennels.”
The post joked: “You’d have thought we would have learned our lesson after the kangaroo incident. Is this real life?”
And anticipating inevitable jokes, they added: “we will mention the irony of the pig in a police car now so that anyone that thinks they’re funny is actually unoriginal and trying too hard.”
In addition to Moodini and the infamous pig pursuit, officers have encountered a six-foot rat snake and even responded to reports of a kangaroo back in 2015.
“It’s not a common call, but we have had it before because there are still some farms in the city,” Petek said. “But it’s still not every day that rush hour traffic is being blocked by four horses running down our main thoroughfare.”
Petek reminded residents that while Monday’s incident ended safely, loose farm animals can pose serious hazards.
“Obviously, we’re not professional wranglers — but we can either help find the owner if our guys are familiar with where the farm is or have the proper professionals handle it,” Petek said. “Horses and cows are large animals and can cause a lot of damage. So, if you run into a large farm animal, your best bet is just to stay away from it and contact the police.”
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