Window to the World, calling for Wind of Wisdom, as common sense is a gift to each soul, as common environment is the inseparable planet, as common desire is to live in a better world.
Real-life cowboy lassos brave and habitual runaway steer on highway I-75: challenging speeding vehicles of steel and iron… what a moment!
When Ricky Littlejohn got the call that Lester the steer was loose again, he knew he was in for a challenging day. After all, it wasn’t the professional cattle-wrangler’s first time pursuing this particular bovine. But he had no idea he would end up chasing the rambunctious runaway down a Michigan highway on horseback, earning himself the nickname “the I-75 cowboy.”
“It was quite scary at first because state police didn’t quite have the highways shut completely down,” Littlejohn told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. “The cars were whizzing by us going 70 to 75 miles an hour until I finally got a rope on him, and they got everything shut down. It was pretty hairy.”
Littlejohn first wrangled Lester about eight weeks ago, and returned the steer safety to his home at the Devoted Barn in Newport, Mich. But almost immediately, Lester jumped through a wooden fence and was on the lam again. He was missing for about six weeks when people started reporting Lester sightings along Interstate 75, near the village of Holly. The Devoted Barn requested Littlejohn’s services once again.
The wranglers called Michigan State Police to help with traffic control. But when the officers arrived at the scene, Lester took off running before they could fully close the highway. The brown and white steer dodged in front of the police cruiser onto a patch of highway that was, thankfully, largely free of other traffic. Littlejohn, looking the perfect picture of an American cowboy, pursued close behind on Bucky, swinging his lasso in the air.
“What was running through my head is: I pray to God people slow down for us,” Littlejohn said. “Like, if you hit a 1,000-pound cow, not only a cow is going to lose its life, but most likely the driver is going to lose its life, too. And that’s kind of why we do what we do, is to try to keep people from getting hurt.”
The chase was intense, but short. Littlejohn quickly lassoed Lester, then guided him to a patch of grass dividing the highway. “Eventually after much tom foolery, the critter was captured and removed from the freeway. Troopers reopened the freeway and things quickly got back to normal,” the Michican State Police tweets read. “The bovine was not charged and is back in the pasture with a story to tell all the other livestock.”
