LEWISTON – The rodeo came to Lewiston on Friday night in ways nobody could have foreseen. A one-ton bull named Dirty Rider jumped a fence at the Colisee and ran amok through an Orange Street neighborhood.
Nobody was hurt when the bull escaped about 11 p.m., but the animal kept police and rodeo crews scrambling and jittery for nearly an hour before it was captured.
The massive bull, considered the most ornery at the rodeo, trotted across Webster Street and onto Orange Street while a rider on horseback chased after it with a lasso.
“I was sitting in the car with my girlfriend when she said oh, my God,'” said 20-year-old Nick Dionne, who was in his driveway on Orange Street when Dirty Rider thundered past. “I looked up and just said, what?’ I saw this giant thing moving down the street and that just didn’t make sense.”
Police who responded had to adapt quickly to the first reports of an escaped bull. One sergeant was on his way to Orange Street when he was told to be on the lookout for a runaway bull with a rider on horseback racing behind it.
By 11:15 p.m., several Orange Street residents were on their porches, gawking as police and rodeo crews cornered the beast in a backyard in the pouring rain.
“I was going to go to the rodeo tonight,” Jim Nelson of Orange Street said, watching at a safe distance. “I guess it came to me, instead.”
Horseman Michael Fletcher, who works with the rodeo, managed to rope the bull after catching it up with in a backyard. But for 20 minutes, the bull kept police and rodeo crews at bay, grunting, charging the men, and running horns first into a trailer several times.
“If that thing comes this way,” one bystander said, “I’m going to run like a little girl.”
For several minutes, the standoff continued, the bull refusing to go into the trailer, the rope that bound it wrapped around a tree. Finally, the crew got portable fencing around the bull and untangled the rope.
“Slap it on the behind,” one crew member said, “and make sure you let go of the rope.”
Moments later, one of the men slapped the bull. The enraged bull ran into the trailer and several men rushed forward to slam the doors closed.
Dirty Rider was brought back to the Colisee. Police said the animal apparently had escaped from captivity by vaulting over a section of the pen that enclosed him. They did not anticipate charges.
“Everyone is fine,” said Lewiston police Cpl. Tim Darnell, “except for one unhappy bull.”
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