Cook County Forest Preserve Police are investigating whether a decapitated goat found at the edge of a Northwest Side golf course Monday is related to the goat’s head delivered to Wrigley Field last week.
Forest Preserve police officers contacted Chicago police about the white goat, found headless and bound at the base of a tree along a maintenance path at Indian Boundary Golf Course, part of the forest preserves, officials say. A plucked and mangled chicken was nearby.
A golfer spotted the goat’s body near the 18th hole at about 10 a.m. and told workers in the course’s pro shop, said Dan Stein, assistant manager. Stein and other employees went out to see the animal before calling forest preserve police.
Maintenance workers buried the goat and chicken near where they were found.
Golfers on the course who knew about the goat were quick to assume it was related to the Wrigley Field incident. The golfer who reported it to workers in the pro shop told them he thought he had found the goat from Wrigley, according to Stein.
A severed goat head was delivered to Wrigley Field on Wednesday by a man who said it was for team chairman Tom Ricketts. The package prompted Mayor Rahm Emanuel to call Ricketts, telling him police would be “on it” if there was any indication of a threat after investigation.
Cook County Forest Preserve spokesman Karen Vaughn said two other dead goats had been found in Northwest side forest preserves within the past year, though this was the first to be missing a head.
Stein said he noticed a suspicious car driving at high speed on the golf course near where the goat was found late Sunday night as he was closing up the pro shop.
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“It was definitely the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen here,” Stein said.
Chicago Cubs spokesman Julian Green said he was unaware of the beheaded goat and couldn’t confirm whether the goat head delivered to Wrigley was white.
A Chicago Police spokesman said he was unaware of any investigation.
