Herd the news?

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — The revenge of the cows heated up Thursday with yet another instance of a herd getting loose in a U.S. community.

This time a cattle-hauling truck rolled over along Interstate 64 in West Virginia, and an emergency dispatcher in Cabell County said a bridge connecting Huntington to Lawrence County, Ohio, also had to be shut down temporarily.

The dispatcher, who cited policy in declining to give his name, said authorities were trying to determine how many cattle were on the truck. However, they took off in several directions, including onto the nearby bridge.

The dispatcher said police in Ohio told him that “they’re running up and down the highway there, too.”

Firefighters were dispatched to assist the westbound truck, which ended up in the highway’s median. The driver was trapped for nearly two hours before being removed from the truck with minor injuries, Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader told The Herald-Dispatch. The accident forced the interstate to be shut down in both directions for several hours.

Huntington is home to Marshall University, whose nickname happens to be the Thundering Herd.

It marked at least the third time that week that cows have gotten loose and prompted responses in U.S. cities, including the second time this week in West Virginia.

On Wednesday, 40 cows escaped a California slaughterhouse and ended up in a Los Angeles suburb where one was killed after charging a family.

Three loose cows roamed the streets of Bluefield, West Virginia, on Monday. Trains had to be stopped as authorities tried to coax the animals off of railroad tracks.

TME – They’ll be waiting ‘til the cows come home.

Naked and afraid

SYDNEY (AP) — Police have fined two men who had to be rescued from an Australian forest after they were startled by a deer while nude sunbathing on a beach and became lost.

The men called for help about 6 p.m. Sunday after they became lost in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, a police statement said Monday.

“Unbelievably, we saw two men sunbaking naked on a beach on the South Coast,” Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters. “They were startled by a deer, ran into the national ... park and got lost.”

Their rescue involved police aircraft, the State Emergency Service and ambulance officers.

The men, aged 30 and 49, were fined 1,000 Australian dollars ($759) each for breaching a stay-home pandemic order that restricted them to Sydney, police said.

The younger man was found “naked and carrying a backpack” while the older man was “partially clothed,” the police statement said.

Fuller described the pair as “idiots.”

“Clearly putting people at risk by leaving home without a proper reason, ... then getting lost in the national park and diverting important resources away from the health operation, I think they should be embarrassed,” Fuller said.

The temperature range on Sunday at Otford, the town nearest to where the men were lost, was 3 degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit) to 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit).

The pair were among 44 people fined by police on Sunday for breaching a public health order after Sydney began a two-week lockdown on Friday due to a new COVID-19 cluster.

TME – All the things to be terrified by in Australia and these morons get spooked by a deer?

Self-serve arrest

GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming man who asked a sheriff’s dispatcher why he hadn’t been arrested soon found himself in handcuffs.

The 62-year-old man called the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday to ask why he hadn’t been arrested after deputies raided his house the previous day.

Asked why he should be arrested, the man said meth use, Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds said.

The man also told a dispatcher 10 young men were following him.

Nobody had raided the man’s house or was planning to arrest him, Reynolds said.

After the call, a deputy spotted the man driving and followed when he pulled off the road, the Gillette News Record reported.

The man allegedly told the deputy he had used methamphetamine a day and a half before and was still high. He did poorly on sobriety tests and was arrested for driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

TME – Ask a silly question …