Prague police recount capturing lost cow in punny social media post

Prague Police dealt with the case of a lost cow in a residential area. The errant bovine was seen chewing grass in a field in the Velká Chuchle district in Prague 5. Police captured the cow and took it to the city’s lost animal shelter in Troja so it could be reunited with its owner. On social media, the police made light of the incident, which they referred to as “operation heifer.”

They claimed that the cow was actually not lost, but engaging in a work stoppage. “A strike for the improvement of conditions in the dairy industry was started in the evening by a young female cow in Prague 5. The policemen, who were the first to arrive at Radotínská Street, immediately started negotiations. However, they did not obtain any conditions for ending the protest action,” the tongue-in-beef-cheek post said.

Police then had to call for backup in the form of animal experts from the police’s shelter for abandoned animals.

“The animal continued to chew the torn grass very aggressively and menacingly. Time was running out, and since there was a real threat that the strike would spread to other regions, it was decided to call in an elite detachment of the interception service,” the police said.

While police are not generally known for their sense of humor, the author of the Facebook post couldn’t resist a painful pun. “The capture workers also tried to negotiate at first, but since the cow continued to be uncooperative, coercive means were used against her in the form of Kráva Maga precision grabs,” they added. Krav Maga is a form of martial arts often used by the police and military, while the Czech word for “cow” is “kráva.”

“After the subject in question was subsequently loaded into a transport trailer, the rebellious activist was taken to the Troja shelter, where she is waiting for her owner,” the post concluded.

Response to the whimsical post has been mostly positive, with some internet users appreciating a bit of lightheartedness among the generally downbeat news about crime and warnings about safety that naturally fill the social media of the police.