Cow found, transported across Ohio after wandering from Austintown property

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

A cow reported stolen was found after it moo-ved through a hole in a fence, and was transported across Ohio.

Austintown Detective Ron McComb said the person that found the cow in neighboring North Jackson is “making arrangements to get it back” to its Austintown owner. The cow “wandered off through a hole in the fence and it ended up out in North Jackson,” McComb said.

The owner is Ted Dodrill, who owns a 59-acre farm on Omalia Drive in the township, and he said he was “absolutely” relieved – and missed his cow.

Dodrill said she made it 3 miles down the road to North Lipkey Road. A homeowner there couldn’t keep her, so his daughter took the cow back to her farm in Lebanon, which Dodrill said is 263 miles across the state. “I was going to have her bred this month so she’d have her babies in the spring, and then she ran off,” Dodrill said.

He said the the 1,800-pound Hereford female has been his pet for about 18 months. He also has pigs and chickens and grows corn and feed.

Dodrill had reported that his cow went missing between July 11 and 12. He called authorities at 9:19 p.m. July 14, and police took a theft report Monday.

In fact, a classified advertisement was placed in The Vindicator on July 17 for “a found stray cow. To claim, submit contact information and photo of cow” to a listed email address. The person who placed the ad is from North Jackson.

The cow was not injured in her travels, and the hole in the fence she went through was repaired by Dodrill on Wednesday.