Bull and cow run loose in East Patchogue

There was a running of the bulls in a quiet East Patchogue neighborhood Friday afternoon, as two bovines broke free, dashing across backyards, jumping over fences, cavorting on train tracks and defying the herding heroics of the locals trying to capture them.

No one was gored, or otherwise injured, during the incident. The beefy pair of escapees, a bull and a cow, was first spotted around 1 p.m. near Orchard Road, grazing serenely as drivers on Montauk Highway looked on, according to Suffolk police and a witness.

Marian and Rob Weber, who were not home at the time, said their neighbors managed to protect their horses when the bovines passed through their North Durkee Lane yard.

Marian Weber said her neighbor told her that the bulls broke free from their owner's property and made their way into the Webers' backyard by breaking a fence.

For two hours the neighbors and police - in utter amazement - fought to calm the cattle and keep them away from the Webers' horse ring that sits directly behind the couple's home. Inside the ring, the couple's horses stood watching quietly, neighbors said.

Weber said her neighbors and police succeeded in keeping the animals away from the horse ring by ushering the black bovines into the next-door neighbor's backyard instead. "They managed to get them in their [the neighbors'] pen," Marian Weber said.

The Webers sat laughing about the event in their living room on Friday night. They moved into their home only three weeks ago. "It's just part of the magic of living out East," Ron Weber said.

One westbound Long Island Rail Road train out of Montauk bound for Jamaica was delayed about six minutes, LIRR spokeswoman Vickie Metz said. Police remained at the scene until 4 p.m.

Police said they didn't know how the pair managed to escape their own yard.

Staff writer Alfonso A. Castillo contributed to this story.