People run from the cops every day. However, you don’t often hear of police pursuits involving livestock as they try to make a grand escape. Still, even with the community and law enforcement working together, re-capturing a young, determined steer. 

An escaped steer led police and community members on a 6-day pursuit across a highway and the Columbia River

If you’ve ever worked around livestock, you know that cows, sheep, and goats can get into some serious trouble. In this case, a 770-lb Angus steer channeled his inner Steve McQueen to put on his version of “The Great Escape.” That’s no joke, either. The seven-month-old steer vaulted a fence, led a police pursuit onto the highway, crossed a river, and disappeared for days.

According to the Columbia Community Connection, the Angus steer was set to return to Dickey Farms near Bingen, Washington. However as Megan Dickey and family members offloaded the steer, he decided to make his move. He lept over a six-foot fence and plowed through a barbed wire fence line. After that, there was nothing left between the noir steer and Washington Highway-14. 

A police pursuit joined the community efforts to catch the runaway steer. Shortly after his escape, police officers and a plow operator attempted to corner and capture the animal miles away from Dickey Farms. “He ran all the way to Courtney Road,” Dickey told the Columbia Community Connection.

Unfortunately, the police officers were unsuccessful in capturing the steer. He then crossed railroad tracks and swam out into the Columbia River. This was no leisurely swim, though. It was an emergency. “He was struggling and bobbing and going down and then coming back up… the current is really heavy there,” Dickey said of the escape attempt.

He disappeared from view, leaving the family to suspect the worst of their daughter’s 4-H project. However, days later, rumblings of a “cow running across Interstate 84” launched the police and the community into pursuit yet again. After he attempted to charge people near a section of railroad tracks, he collapsed from exhaustion. Concerned that he would be struck by a passing train, people on the scene hoisted the heavy animal and took him away. 

You might be wondering if the nearly 800-lb bovine troublemaker recovered after the movie-worthy escape attempt. Dickey told an interviewer that he’s “back to his old self.” Better yet, the steer seems ready to make another escape attempt. “He’s ornery,” Dickey joked.