Cows escape from farm, fiery mayhem ensues?

Y'know, we Houstonians do everything we can to convince our friends on the cosmopolitan East Coast that we really don't have an oil well in our backyard and ride a horse to work, thank you — and just when they start to believe us, a herd of cows breaks free and wanders around a subdivision. But this doesn't happen all the time! Right? Um ...

Residents said they have seen cattle roaming through their neighborhood before.

"This isn't the first time this has happened," resident Carl Scarborough said. "It's happened about two or three times, so I mean it's a usual thing. I mean we're in Texas!"

It happened around 10 p.m. in the Villages of Bear Creek subdivision when the cows managed to find their way out of a nearby farm and roamed around the neighborhood for a while, flattening mailboxes, trampling flowerbeds and breaking a sprinkler pipe, sending a jet of water into the air. Pictures from local TV stations show an almost bucolic scene: cows wandering down streets, doing what cows do — but then there's KPRC's report, which was accompanied by an aerial photo of several buildings engulfed in flames with the caption "Cattle Wreak Havoc On Neighborhood." Wow, who knew cows could do that? (Unfortunately, the photo has been changed. That seems to confirm our suspicion that it was the wrong image all along, so there's really no reason to think that cows are pyromaniacs ... is there?)

Harris County sheriff's deputies were eventually able to herd the cows into a pen, from where they were taken to the sheriff's office's livestock division. The cows' owner will be able to claim them from there, Channel 2 reports.

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Top photo: flickr user hans s