Sheep, goats flee auction's butcher block, roam Hackettstown streets

William Westhoven | Morristown Daily Record

Hackettstown police spent a busy Wednesday night wrangling herds of goats and sheep that escaped a local livestock auction.

About 75 animals took off at about 9:33 p.m. through an unsecured gate at the Hackettstown Livestock Auction on West Stiger Street, Sgt. Darren Tynan said.

Police and "good Samaritans," Tynan said, helped to herd the animals back into their pen. Police prevented a second escape by securing the gate with rope.

Linda Moore and her husband were among the locals who stopped to help police control the chaos.

"My husband was driving and we were coming down Stiger Street, heading home, and we saw a lot of goats and sheep in the middle of the road, and in the two parking lots on the sides of the auction market," said Moore, a resident of neighboring Mansfield who lives about two miles from the auction. He couldn’t pass, so he said, ‘Hey, we might as well try to help.’ "

Hackettstown police: 'Scruffy' man exposes himself at gas pumps

Going to NJ State Fair in Sussex County?: Go with comfortable shoes and empty stomach

They parked their car and plotted a strategy.

"My husband had the idea, ‘I’ll go on this side and you go on that side, and we can wrangle them together'," she said. "We just started running with them, and they were running with us, and started going back [into the pen]."

Some strays, though, continued to run for their lives.

"There were a few that we were chasing for a while," she said. "That was a lot of exercise in the heat. Whew!”

The auction market, formally known as the Livestock Cooperative Auction Market of North Jersey Inc., was founded in 1941 and is a venue for farmers to buy and sell animals and for butchers and wholesalers to buy.

Farmers bring cows, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys and pigeons to the market to sell to butchers and wholesalers.

"If you're in this area buying locally raised meat, there's a good chance the animal you ate passed through this market," the auction states on its website.

"They were breaking free," Moore said of the fugitive animals.

Heading back to the scene on Thursday, Moore saw what may be the ironic end of a longtime town mystery: the whereabouts of a sheep that escaped the auction about a year ago, seen around town since then by locals who nicknamed it "Fred."

"He was trying to get back in [the auction pen]," she said. "All the others were trying to get out, and at the same time, he was trying to get in."

Calls to the auction on Thursday afternoon were not immediately returned.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@Dailyrecord.com.