- What would be your first question if you were the cop pulling this guy over?
Taking your dog out for a car ride is just fun. They’re just so cute with their head stuck out the window and ears flapping in the breeze.
It’s not just dogs that enjoy an occasional Sunday drive, though. Bigger animals can like them too.
Much, much bigger.
Nebraska cops recently pulled over a man after a concerned 911 call reporting that he was driving around with an animal in his car. However, the police officers who stopped weren’t exactly prepared for what kind of a best it was.
Sitting in the shotgun passenger’s seat of the Ford Crown Victoria was a ginormous Watusi bull.
“We didn’t have a full understanding of it until we saw it,” Captain Chad Reiman of Norfolk Police told the Associated Press.
Naturally, the bull — whose name is Howdy Doody, by the way — couldn’t fit in the sedan without some modifications. The bull’s owner, Lee Meyer, had made a slew of bovine-accommodating modifications to his vehicle.
To begin with, he had sawed off half of the car’s windshield and roof so that Howdy Doody could fit in the car. He’d also replaced the passenger side door with a yellow metal cattle gate, so he could strap the bull into the car more or less securely.
As a final cherry on top of it all, Meyer’s car’s hood is adorned with a pair of longhorns.
“It wouldn’t go far without being noticed, for sure,” said Reiman.
Not His First Rodeo
This isn’t the first time Meyer has taken Howdy Doody out on a ride in his modified Ford. In fact, he’s received official recognition for it.
In July, Meyer and Howdy Doody drove together in the Nebraska Big Rodeo Parade in Burwell. Together, they won the event’s Best Car Entry award.
The prize plaque now decorates the cattle gate strapped to Meyer’s vehicle.
He didn’t drive with Howdy Doody in the front seat to the parade, though. The huge bull traveled to Burwell in an appropriately sized cattle trailer.
There are also multiple videos online of Meyer driving his bull car around. The oldest date to 2017, so this really isn’t a new thing.
So, why was the bull in the front seat now? Was Meyer on his way to another parade?
According to Reiman, he wasn’t. During the traffic stop, Meyer wouldn’t explain why he had decided to load Howdy Doody into his car and go for a ride.
His ‘Friend and Buddy’
Although we don’t have an official explanation, we suspect the reason Meyer took Howdy Doody is that they’re friends. And sometimes, friends go out for car rides together.
At least, that’s a possibility according to Rhonda Meyers, Mr. Meyers’ wife. She said that her husband bought Howdy Doody some nine years ago.
Since then, the bull has become his “friend and buddy.” These days, Howdy Doody is really a family member in the Meyer household.
Clearly, Meyer just loves his bull.
Mrs. Meyer doesn’t mind her husband having a bovine buddy — it’s not like their friendship harms anyone. That said, she does admit that there was a time when she wasn’t exactly thrilled with how much cash he was sinking into the bull.
“The amount of money that he’s spent on this whole darn project between the car and the bull, I could’ve had a brand-new kitchen,” Mrs. Meyer lamented.
Just Go Home, Man
Well, we suppose there are stranger things out there than a man attached to his barnyard animals. There’s just one question remaining — how did Meyers’ traffic stop end?
He got away with a slap on the wrist.
According to Reiman, Meyers’ car clearly wasn’t street legal and violated traffic laws in multiple ways. However, the officer who pulled him over decided to let Meyers go with a warning, as long as he immediately turned around and drove Howdy Doody home.
Perhaps that’s because he didn’t have a clear guideline on what to do about a bull-loaded sedan.
“We’ve never dealt with anything quite like that before,” admitted Reiman.
A video of the traffic stop did go viral, though. Mrs. Meyers said her husband is rather shy and doesn’t quite know what to do with all the attention — but he doesn’t necessarily mind it.
“Lee thinks he’s a movie star,” she said.