A cow ended its Thursday on a particularly calm note in north suburban Woodstock - a sharp contrast to the chaotic scene that unfolded hours earlier - one that got some local high schoolers in hot water.
Police in Niles say students at Northbridge Preparatory School bought a cow on Craigslist then brought it, along with other live animals, to school as a senior prank.
But the cow escaped, creating a potentially dangerous situation for both the animal and community.
Robert Plummer was in the area Thursday morning, bleary-eyed from an early morning shift at WBBM radio, when he saw the cow at the intersection of Grace and Davis in Niles.
"I had to close my eyes and open them again and said, yep, that’s a cow!," he told NBC 5.
A team from the historic Wagner Farm in Glenview was called in to wrangle the renegade bovine, which had the students chasing after it for hours.
"I'm sure it was traumatic for the animal," said Jonathan Kuester with the farm. "I was very worried about it hitting a car."
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The school, which did not press criminal charges, released a statement, saying "the senior class is in the process of contacting the police department, city officials and local residents to apologize. We apologize to the local community for any inconvenience this event may have caused and will work internally to find resolution and accountability."
The juveniles involved were issued citations by the village of Niles.
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After the spectacle, the cow was getting used to her new surroundings - where she'll stay put - at least for now.
"She seems to have settled in nicely," said Cynthia Glensgard with the Hooved Animal Humane Society. "She's enjoying the grass. Alert. Doesn't seem too stressed."