MILTON — If you were in the Milton area Wednesday and thought you saw police officers armed with tazers chasing two horses throughout the area, your eyes weren’t deceiving you.
State Trooper Chad Rarig said the chase began around 8 a.m. Wednesday as Sally and Molly, two mustangs owned by Rose Booth, escaped from a farm along Route 254 near Milton.
About a dozen friends and neighbors joined forces with state and Milton police officers in an attempt to corral the two wayward equines.
Marlin Long of Milton said he walks by the farm every day and came upon the chase Wednesday during his morning constitutional. He decided to join the volunteers attempting to pen in the horses.
Long said noisy horses visiting a neighboring farm may have spooked Sally and Molly and spurred the break out.
The pair first led the group on a chase through the fields near Petro’s All American Truck Stop. They then made their way north on Route 147, where Rarig said he was able to shoot one with his tazer.
The zap didn’t slow the mustang and they continued their unsupervised trek.
Around 12:30 p.m., volunteers and police tracked Sally and Molly to a wooded area behind R.C. Stahlnecker’s on Golf Course Road, where something which resembling an old-fashioned standoff began.
As members of the group prepared their lassos, officers checked their tazers and waited for a tranquilizer gun to arrive from a nearby deer farm.
Once the gun arrived, the group converged on the wooded area in an attempt to drive Sally and Molly into the open.
Rarig said one of the volunteers was able to shoot several tranquilizer darts into each horse.
After much anticipation and a few tense moments, the men were finally able to lure the horses out of the woods and bring them under control.
But just as the standoff seemed to be ending, one of the horses kicked its hooves into the air and the pair made another break for freedom.
Volunteers and police were finally able to stop the two at 3 p.m. on the front lawn of the First Baptist Church on Golf Course Road.
After much coaxing, Sally and Molly were then loaded into a horse trailer and taken back to the farm to recover from their adventure.
Rarig said officers used tazers and a tranquilizer gun as alternatives to deadly force. He added the officers would have killed the animals only as a last resort.