NEBRASKA – Let this be a warning to those of you who long to hit the open road with a 2,200-pound (997kg) steer riding shotgun: Observe all traffic laws, especially when passing through Norfolk, Nebraska.

Mr Lee Meyer, 63, a retired machinist, learned that lesson on Wednesday.

For seven years, Mr Meyer has been chauffeuring his 2,200-pound Watusi-longhorn mix named Howdy Doody with its horns and head exposed to the open air in a customised Ford Crown Victoria.

But he had never been stopped by the police, he said, until Wednesday morning as he drove Howdy Doody into Norfolk from his six-hectare ranch south of Neligh, about 56km away.

Mr Meyer had just turned off the highway on what was supposed to be a test run in preparation for Howdy Doody’s appearance at Norfolk’s Oktoberfest when he noticed a police car behind him had turned on its flashing lights.

Someone had reported “a vehicle driving down the road with a cow in it,” said Captain Chad Reiman of the Norfolk Police Division.

The officer gave Mr Meyer warnings that his vehicle had an obstructed view and an unsecured load, but did not cite him for any traffic violations, Mr Reiman said.

Mr Meyer, who lives in a city of about 1,500, said he was not surprised that he had run into some problems in Norfolk, a city of about 26,000 residents, roughly 185km north-west of Omaha.

“It’s so shocking to people, I guess, sometimes that they don’t know what to do,” he said. “And the bigger the town you go to, the more stiff-necked they are, for lack of a better word. I’ve been to plenty of towns that are a lot smaller and nobody has had any problems with it.”

Mr Meyer uses the Crown Victoria for closer destinations and a trailer for places more than 64km away. He said that he drives about 56kmh on the highway and that Howdy Doody, who wears a halter in the car, does not startle on the road.

Mr Meyer said his brief brush with the law will not stop him from driving Howdy Doody again, although he now plans to skip Oktoberfest in Norfolk.

“I won’t go to Norfolk,” he said. “But I will go to these other little towns around. They’re going to have to do a lot more to stop me.” NYTIMES