Now I’ve seen everything!
A Nebraska man was recently pulled over by police for a rather large front seat passenger.
The police were quite unsure of what to make of the creature riding shotgun. But they knew one thing – His name was Howdy Doody.
Norfolk Police responded after getting a call concerning a fully-grown Watusi bull riding alongside Lee Meyer.
Meyer had put a yellow barrier on the side of the car so the bull would stay inside.
“The officers received a call referencing a car driving into town that had a cow in it,” Police Capt. Chad Reiman said to reporters. “They thought that it was going to be a calf, something small or something that would actually fit inside the vehicle.”
“As a result, the officer performed a traffic stop and addressed some traffic violations that were occurring with that particular situation,” Reiman added.
“The officer wrote him some warnings,” Reiman continued.
Lee Meyer, 63, a retired machinist, with his 2,200-pound steer, Howdy Doody. Photo by News Channel Nebraska
“I don’t know why he was doing it that day,” Reiman said. “I asked him what kind of animal it was, where he lived, how far he came from, and those types of things. I talked to him about the violations that were occurring and that was pretty much the extent of our conversation.”
I can honestly say that I haven’t seen anything like that before,” he added. “It was different, for sure. You’re not going to run across that every day.”
This wasn’t the first time that Meyer has made headlines with Howdy Doody. In 2019, Meyer and Howdy rode down through a parade route in town. Video taken showed Meyer’s float with a license plate that read ‘Boy & Dog’.
The Antelope County News captioned the picture: “FAN FAVORITE: The kids went wild when Lee Meyer of Neligh drove his watusi named “Howdy Doody” on the parade route!”
Meyer, a retired machinist, said he had been driving the 2,200-pound bull in his customized Ford Crown Victoria for seven years.
But until now, he had never been pulled over by the police.
“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.”
A simple bout of boredom led to him acquiring Howdy Doody more than 8 years ago.
“It’s just a hobby,” Meyer said. “Kids grew up, had to do something.”
Grandkids said it was a bad idea. I said grandpa’s going to do it anyway.”
Meyer says Howdy enjoys the car rides.
“Not one time has he in seven years made an attempt to jump out or kick or struggle in any way,” he said.
David Gutshall, an insurance agent in Norfolk, said he was out working the day Meyer was in town.
“I thought that can’t be a real bull,” he said. “It can’t be real.” But as he grew closer, the steer turned his head and stared at Gutshall.
Lee Meyer, 63, a retired machinist, with his 2,200-pound steer, Howdy Doody. Photo by News Channel Nebraska
“It was like ‘Look at me, man,’” he said. “He’s just totally calm, cool and just being a rock star, and like he knows it.”
Meyer said that this brush with the law won’t stop him from driving Howdy around.
“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.”
Take a look below at Meyer and his favorite bull, Howdy Doody.
