Milford Meets Mega-Moose
Milford, New Hampshire police were led on a high-speed chase by a marauding mega-moose one morning in May. Witnesses the monster moose was the size of a minivan.
MILFORD — A loose moose startled onlookers as it wandered down Nashua Street early on the morning of May 31.
Children’s librarian Marybeth Choquette saw the moose at around 8 a.m. as she drove to her work at Wadleigh Memorial Library. She said the animal was across the street from Cumberland Farms and heading toward Franklin Street followed by a police cruiser.
“It was an exciting way to start my day,” said Choquette. “It was lumbering along fast, looking very disoriented.”
The moose was about the size of a mini van, she said. Choquette says she hopes the moose found his way back home.
Police Capt. Christopher Nervik said the police usually handle one or two moose per year. Generally, police follow the animal to make sure no humans get too close.
Yeah, sure. That's a convenient excuse to cover up the fact that the police were unable to catch and ticket the speeding moose. And there is a reason that the moose are virtually unstoppable when they decide to go joyriding like this: they are immune to speed bumps:
DIXFIELD - Moose apparently like the speed bumps that were installed in 2005 along the side of Route 4 in Phillips to prevent them from running into the roadway in high-crash locations.
The gangly critters have been observed walking the length of the angular stone walls, then heading onto the road, Maine Department of Transportation regional manager Norm Haggan said by phone Wednesday afternoon in Dixfield.
"They're using them as a place to get up and dry their feet off," Haggan said.
The bumps consist of 4- to 8-foot-wide strips of riprap of various lengths, the intent of which is to slow any moose running onto the road. They're not a barrier to moose and aren't intended to prevent the animals from entering the roadway, as would fencing.
"They're not a big deterrent so, apparently, they're not effective. When it's car versus moose, the moose is still the boss," Haggan said.
So there you have it: human police are powerless against speeding moose. Especially giant, speeding moose. Score yet another victory for the Animal Uprising™.
By Lars Walker, Thursday, 7 June , 2007 @ 9:04 am
I will corroborate the statement that moose are “as big as a mini-van.” I was riding shotgun in a friend’s Dodge van (we didn’t call them mini-vans back then, in the early 70s) one night when a moose popped up at the roadside. It looked me square in the eye. It was such an unnerving moment that I swallowed wrong and got the worst case of hiccups of my life.
By Purple Avenger, Thursday, 7 June , 2007 @ 4:15 pm
Its going to take 20′ high razor wire fences to contain them.