“Bro, there's just a cow”: two friends end up guarding a runaway cow at 1am

All they wanted was something to eat. After a late shift on Wednesday evening, a 30-year-old from Amriswil and his 29-year-old friend from Bischofszell, both in canton Thurgau, drove to St. Gallen for a midnight snack. On the country road home they had an encounter they are unlikely to forget, as the Swiss daily Blick reports.

A bell in the dark

Shortly before 1am, a cow was suddenly standing in the middle of the village street in Muolen – bell around its neck and visibly unimpressed by the car. “Bro, there's just a cow,” the 30-year-old said to his friend.

The two called the police. By the time an officer arrived, the animal had wandered into the garden of a family home.

“Can you watch the cow for a moment?”

The officer could not reach the owner by phone and decided to drive over and wake him in person. That left the question of who would mind the cow in the meantime. The answer was standing right in front of him: he asked the two men whether they could take over briefly. They agreed on the spot – “with great pleasure”, as the 30-year-old told Blick.

Waving their arms and using their phone torches, they kept the animal within a small area. There was a good reason for the effort: a main road runs directly opposite, and they wanted to stop the cow from walking into traffic and causing an accident.

All's well, cow's home

After a while the owner arrived, caught the cow and took it home. The St. Gallen cantonal police confirmed the call-out to Blick.

The case is less exotic than it sounds. In October 2026 alone, the St. Gallen emergency call centre received 20 reports of cows or calves that had strayed.