MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Law enforcement in the Eastern Panhandle had to temporarily become cow wranglers on Wednesday when a brown cow wandered onto busy I-81 in the northbound lanes just before exit 12.
As a precaution, all lanes were shut down just before 10 a.m. The roadway was reopened a short time later as the cow had already left the interstate and walked into the tree line just off the roadway.
Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair says despite initial reports that the cow had been corralled, it appears that while it was successfully steered away from the interstate, it was not safely in custody yet. The owner was on scene trying to locate the cow, which was last reported heading toward the concrete plant.
Law enforcement was concerned about corralling the cow before it could wander back onto a road in the area.
We broke into regular programming on Panhandle Live to announce the traffic update and had a live, on the scene report from Will Astle of WV Eastern Panhandle Weather, who happened to be nearby and talked about what he was seeing.
Ironically, the cow was initially reported to have crossed “in the area of Chick-fil-a,’ which uses cows in its advertising. That prompted one social media user to respond that the ad campaign was getting out of hand.