Billy Goat Cuffed

Goat goes rogue
BY LAUREN DRINKARD/Odessa American

Who ya gonna call? Goat busters!

A rogue goat led the Odessa Police Department and Odessa Animal Control on a wild race through the busy streets of Odessa around 5 p.m. Saturday.

Officers received the eyebrow-raising call of a sheep running down 42nd Street and then into the Taco Bell parking lot. It was quickly determined that what officers were actually after was a goat.

“We don’t know where it came from,” Animal Control Officer Joe Barreraz said. It took four on-duty officers, two animal control officers and one off-duty officer on motorcycle to see the incident to an end.

The goat was originally spotted at the intersection of 42nd Street and Grandview Avenue. It made its way down 42nd where it crossed the street and ran through Memorial Gardens Park. After that, officers said it ran through the UTPB campus with a detour through the dorms area. City of Odessa dispatch next identified it near the intersection of University Boulevard and Oakwood Drive.

“Our main concern was to get it out of traffic,” Barreraz said.

Officer Randy Vest said he came face-to-face with the goat in an alley and the two had a face off. Laughingly, Vest said the goat evaded him.

The goat was finally apprehended in the 900 block of JBS Parkway near the interchange at Highway 80 after Animal Control Officers shot it with a tranquilizer gun.

Animal Control took the goat into custody following the chase.

This story came as a bit of a surprise. You don't see too many goats on the East Side. If they had caught this goat at University and West County I would have figured some Mexican Oil Field employees were planning to cook this thing and it broke free but I'm not sure what to make of this. I hate to think this goat was running home to Taco Bell. I've heard horror stories about Taco Bell kitchens but this would be the last straw. At least it made state headlines and it wasn't about bible class curriculums or meth.