Suspected Cattle Rustler Tries To Cram A Cow Into His Car And Drive Away

In recent months, the price of live cattle has spiked; this chart from NASDAQ tells the story. That has the standard impact on farmers and consumers in terms of price, but it also leads to a revival of a not-so-noble tradition from centuries past: cattle rustling. Cattle theft is fairly common these days, everywhere from Oklahoma to Kenya to Kentucky. But a recent theft in California — an unsuccessful theft, we should add — gets our attention for just how weird it is.

Last week, one Cesar Zamora Santana was spotted by a local Southern Californian police officer loitering outside an auto shop. Curious, the officer took a peek around, and found something highly unusual: a calf in the back of Santana’s car. Santana insists that he bought the calf, a 150-pound female, at a gas station for $200, but there are a few issues with that story that gave the officer cause for doubt. For one thing, who buys a live cow at a gas station? For another, the calf’s identifying ear-tag was torn out (which is also sort of brutal and unpleasant).

Santana was arrested, says the AP, “on suspicion of transporting livestock without proof of ownership or identifying information.” The calf was confiscated and turned over to a farmer until the Riverside Animal Services department can figure out who legally owns it.

(Image, meant to evoke old-timey cattle rustling, via Flickr user Cloudzilla)