Hey guys, welcome to Greatest Escapes, the show bringing you the wildest true escape stories of all time. Not today, we're following a heartwarming tale, the story of an escapee who the whole community rallied around. He even got the police on his side. Very impressive. I'm Martro Castro, and I'm joined by a fantastic actress and comedian who also hosts a podcast, True Crime and Cocktails, Lauren Ash.
Let's go, Lauren Ash bra blah blah.
What a joy in my life, I think.
Welcome to the show.
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be here. I was so excited when I saw this come through my email. I was like, hell, yes, I cannot wait. This is the best.
You know.
It's one of those things where where you know the wonderful folks at Film Nation. I love Film Nation. Film Nation is great. I love them.
Help me.
Maybe you're plotting an escape.
Well's nothing. I love them. They treat me so to her will not be escaping.
Legally contractually bound? I gotcha, Lauren.
I wanted to ask you, do you have the greatest escape story?
You know what's so funny?
I was with my best friend of ten ten twenty years last night, Leslie Siler we met, Yes, we met twenty years ago this month and I said to her. I was like, I'm doing this podcast and it's about escapes. And I was like, and I can't think it.
She goes Boston and I went, that's it. Immediately she was.
Like me, Mark Wahlberg is involved, Like, oh, Boddy, we're gonna go.
We're gonna go, we're gonna get some sandwiches, We're gonna eat a lobstery.
Okay, so tell me. So what happened in Boston?
She and I again, we met twenty years ago.
We were best friends, comedy partners, and we were going for this comedy festival in Boston and we were staying kind of far from the venue and so you had to take a like an uber or a cab.
But this was kind of at the time when Uber.
Was just starting. So for those of us we were like, how does it work?
Do we have the app?
We were still hailing cabs at this point right in the world, okay, and.
It was hella expensive and like hard to get I remember totally totally.
And so we we had come out of the hotel and we had so much stuff because we were doing a sketch comedy show, so I don't have to.
Tell you Wigs Wiggs.
We've got a lot of gear and we're waiting and we've somehow, for some reason, we like walked to half a block from the hotel and we were like, there's no cabs.
What are we going to do? And then this car pulls up.
It's a black car, it's a nice car, and this guy goes, where are you going?
And we both were like, and he's like, I'll take you.
And it was in this moment that I looked at her and she seemed okay with it, and she later told me that she looked at me and I seemed okay with it, when in reality, neither.
Of us was okay with it.
Wow, And so we were like, okay, I guess we're getting into this unmarked limo car thing we put our stuff in, but automatically now listen, this is pre me having a true crime podcast. But I was already I'm very familiar with the date lines.
I know where this.
Con is like one oh one, yeah, right.
So on my phone, I've pulled up where we are supposed to be going, because again it's not our town and I'm watching, and then I have the true horror set in as I watched this man going the wrong way and he gets on a freeway and he's driving away.
From where we need to go.
And in this moment, this is when I my anxiety brain takes over. And I told her later that I was like, this is the picture that my brain painted. I was like, he was gonna drive us to an abandoned airport hangar and that's where we get murdered.
A very yes, very niche. There's so many of them, you know, people don't know. It's a rampant abandonment of air hangers in the East Coast.
Oh my god.
But in this moment, so this is all this move, I'm playing the movie of the rest of the end of my life in my head and I'm watching him go past exit after exit, and after the third exit, the further we're getting from the from where we're supposed to be.
I'm Canadian? Can I curse on this show?
Do we curse?
Yeah?
Fuck it?
So in this moment, I was like something took over in me, and again fight to the death, I guess came out even though I never predicted it. And I was like listen, motherfucker, you're going the wrong fucking way, and you're gonna get.
Off this freeway.
You're gonna take this turn.
You're gonna win. And he was like okay, whoa and he did.
And then I was like, listen, from here on out, I am navigating, not you. And I was like telling him where to go, and he drove us there. And I don't know what his ultimate goal was. I think it was just taking us for a ride to get more money. I think that ultimately it was not necessarily nefarious. But ultimately I think what I showed was this isn't going to be easy for you.
This is not gonna be fun.
But the best part was we finally arrive at our destination, which should have been about a fifteen dollars ride, and he asked for seventy five.
Oh fucking dare he? Also, I love the idea of you combating a serial killer with assertiveness, Like that's like they're like, oh no, I've been foiled. Somebody spoke with the station.
This depends on the kind of ride that guy's looking for. Don't pardon the pun, but again, it's like, you know, it was like, this is gonna be too much trouble for you for you do, but I'll never be.
You're right, people want easy prey.
Yes, but what we have said ever since then, this is the follow up to this, is that it was like we escaped death potential death once.
We can never court it again.
Yeah, you get the one.
Ge get one and that's it.
You're Canadian, you might get two.
We consider ourselves good global citizens for the most part.
That's right. I'm another brush with death. Don't don't you worry about it? Like, put yourself at a risk, take that extra shot, jump in that car. Yeah, absolutely, Ben, Can you give me that cool like chapter music? Please? You know when we changed chapter Ben, Ben, no, man, like you remember, it was like more emotional, like what did we do last last one? We're gonna cut all this out? But yeah, definitely oh this one, yes, like turn yes please? Okay, So I'm gonna go, Ben, give
us some good chapter music. God damn it, man, we just talked about it. Today. We start inside a prisoner transport rattling down the Massachusetts Highway. They're being shipped out of state to nearby Connecticut because everyone inside is scheduled for execution.
Oh no, so Massachusetts we're we're in the same world here.
Yeah, that's right, And they were all being been by a nounmarked vehicle. It was August third, twenty twenty. Along with the other prisoners, Buddy pulled up alongside the new facility and they jostled each other nervously as they came to a stop. After four years penned up in Massachusetts, he had been carted to Plymouth, Connecticut to die. Oh what do you know about the death penalty in Massachusetts?
Uh? You know what I should know more?
I have a true crime podcast after two years, but I wasn't aware that it was in existence in Massachusetts anymore.
My capital punishment was overturned for state crimes in nineteen eighty four. Only federal crimes were punishable by death, so Connecticut kept the death penalty for much much longer. So in twenty twenty, Buddy was scheduled for execution, but he had different ideas. Okay, so this was the first time Massachusetts and Connecticut facilities had actually worked together, and the handoff wasn't really the smoothest okay. In fact, when he
was being unloaded, Buddy saw his chance. Somehow he was able to slip past the restraints, dodged the guards, and hall ass right to freedom. Oh there was a super thick forest nearby, and Buddy dove into the trees and totally disappeared. So it was an impulsive escape, you know, he saw his opportunity and he took it. But whoever said that it takes elaborate planning for an escape to be great, right, This one was pure instinct. Buddy just
disappeared into the woods around Plymouth, Connecticut. Now he wasn't hiding for long. In fact, multiple nine one one calls came in when Buddy was spotted crossing the highway nearby. The police were so quick on his sail. But Buddy wasn't easy to catch. You know. He was a really big dude, like terrifyingly big, and he was super fast too, so once he got into the trees, he easily lost
everyone who was on his trail. Oh my god. Now the police contemplated lethal force, but said it would only be necessary if Buddy started to roam the streets and threaten the public in Terryville, so it was like a conditional lethal force action. It was more than three weeks later, on August twenty seventh, that the police finally put the
word out that he was on the loose. The Plymouth Police posted on their Facebook page that they were were working with the two other agencies to recapture the eskpee. He had been last seen along Connecticut's Route seventy two, So.
They waited three weeks to alert the public.
Yeah. I think it's because of Yeah, it's hard to admit when you pulled the dumbass act.
You know.
I guess when he did get away, he slipped away so easily.
Yeah, I guess maybe that's a tough thing to be. Like, Hey, guys are bad.
Also, I love the idea that they're like, we have to announce it somehow, we have to Okay, just put it on the fucking Facebook page. Okay, nobody reads that one. They actually printed it on their MySpace page. Yeah, exactly, it was there.
We put it out.
We put it up there. Man, Yeah, you know, we've announced it. You guys just didn't check high five dot com at that time. Oh my god. So, for the most part, Buddy was a really talented fugitive. He stayed under the cover of the woods, ate his food super raw, and stayed quiet. Even so, the town of Terryville was told to be cautious. The police said that Buddy was aggressive and a confrontation with him would cause serious injuries.
The town was cautioned to keep their distance and call nine to one one on site.
Now.
On Monday, September one, twenty twenty, the state drone unit was basically a couple of gamers down in Connecticut being like, y'all do it, I got nothing else to do, as well as local and state officers combed the woods along Judd Road and Rout seventy two on the north side of Terrible Connecticut. Buddy had been at large for almost a month by this point. Now the local police captain on the case. His name is Edward Benecki. Am I
saying that, right, overlord? That is correct? Okay, So Edward Benecki had previously seen I'm sorry to all my Italian American friends had previously worked enforcement on narcotics, on gangs and firearms trafficking, right, but this was something completely new. Buddy was massive and quick, so capturing him was difficult. Some would say he's a survivalist, you know, like if he were on a survival TV show game, he'd definitely be the star. How well would you do, Lauren? You
want to survivor show alone? What's no there's one called yes naked and a frame. There's one just called alone, I think, and it's like so fucking.
Scary, the ones where they drop you in the middle of the woods and you're completely nude, and it's like figure it out. That is what would happen to me in like a purgatory situation after death if I did bad things in life, like I.
Don't want to camp. I don't want a glamp, no.
Shower, man shower, Because here's my question, how is camping anything other than bragging?
It is bragging that I can survive.
That I don't.
I have no I can be humble and say I wouldn't.
Well, you know you also realize, like as actors, like how meaningless our skills are in an apocalypse, Like I mean, well, everybody's like, you know this community used to say this, and I love her for you, but she's like she's like she would be walking around with an almond being like can anybody turn this into milk? Can anybody in me? I would be like, yeah, I don't really hunt or like digs.
For stuff, but we just have to hope that people still want entertainment.
I think that that's it, Like you gotta hope that.
Like, I mean, the musicians did go down with the Titanic, so that's maybe not a great comparison.
Yeah, nobody was to make sure the musicians get in first.
You know, the.
Music must live on, the music must live on.
Going get the laughs.
I would learn to tap dance or something super marketable. I'd be like, you guys need some tap dancing. So ed this ed Biniki thought that he could corner Buddy because Buddy was also young. You know, in fact, Buddy was only four years old. Here's where we have, Lauren, what do you think Buddy actually is a Number one, we have a sadistic doll possessed by an evil spirit of a serial killer. Number two is he a top secret early prototype kinetic robotic system that developed artificial intelligence?
Or Number three a beefalo escaping slaughter? Wait a second, what's a beefalo? Don't worry about it. Is it a bfalo? Is it a top secret prototype or a sadistic doll?
Okay, well, you said he was big, You said he was young.
Uh huh.
You said he was able to eat raw food, and he could evade things and we couldn't shoot him. I don't know what a beefalo is, but part of me wonders if it is a cow buffalo hybrid that for some reason.
Ding ding ding ding ding, you got it. I didn't mean to say, you don't worry about it, but they told me I couldn't tell you what it was, so no, I I am, yeah, I am under contract. They're so nice to me. I love them so much.
I'm going to send you a burner phone.
Okay, I actually, yes, please give me. Yeah. I didn't know what a beefalo was either, but I think the name is fucking hilarious. So yeah, it's a beefo. Is a is a bison mixed with with a cow? I believe? Or right? Am I?
Right?
Guys, yes, sir, A beefalo is a bison cow hybrid.
Oh my god.
Okay, this is amazing. I love this turn. This is fantastic, so listen.
It turns out Buddy's only crime was being born a beefalo. Oh so bison, you know, they are lean and mean, and cows are docile but carry less meat, so when they crossbread In the eighteen seventies, it was supposed to make the perfect healthy meat animal, as lean as a bison, but as gentle as a cow. They have been tested as having higher vitamin levels and more protein than beef, and they were supposed to be easily led from the
feed lot to the killing floor. Now you can visit American beefalo Association dot com for the full picture, which is actually a thing which I love. But the point is that Buddy the beefalow was literally bred for slaughter, but he was not planning to be merchandise. Nay, not Buddy, my friend. In fact, his initial escape was just the beginning. Give me a mood sound, will you?
Ma oh?
She was about yes and yeah, of course, Lauren, you're welcome.
You're welcome to make any sound effects you would like.
Yes, sorry, Lauren, but I wouldn't ask you so so so succinctly, I would be appreciate, do you mind? So, Lauren? Now that we know that the escapee is actually a b falow, what we got here is a really lighthearted story, right like this happened early in the pandemic, and to me, I don't know, it really showcases the like the power of community and how we all needed a little optimism and a little comedy in that time, you know, so let's have some fun with it. Yeah, now, Bud, his
escape was pretty unusual. The slaughterhouse he ran away from was a full service facility.
You know.
They did the slaughtering and the butchering, packaging, shipping out of cuts of Primo b Falow everywhere ever. You got to be follow, You got to be follow. That's all they did. They were the real pros and they weren't used to their animals escaping, so obviously neither were the local cops. After the police put out an APV on Buddy, Captain ed bickhetdie what is it, mckheeddie, sorry, Captain ed Mineki.
Captain ed Minecki gave a statement to the press. He said that at one point there was an officer who had cornered Buddy, but in that's words, I quote, yeah, he approached the animal, but the animal put his head down and started to pall the ground aggressively or scratched the ground real aggressive like. So at the time the sergeant tactically relocated, which is another term for he to
retreat it from the area. What excuse, what excuse would you make to save face when you're basically telling people that an angry moo moo freaked you out, you.
Know, a angry moo. Yeah, I like that term a lot.
I mean, I think I think it's fair to say I felt like I was going to be charged.
But I guess my question then.
Would just be and I know this isn't answering your question directly, but if he's kind of menacing to you, then I feel like you do have permission to use deadly force because the whole point was right, So, yeah, it kind of feels like in that moment, you got to come up with something else, which I guess then I would just be like, I am a vegan, I'm a vegitarian, and I couldn't ethically.
So I have found Buddhism in that moment where he was stomping on the ground, right. But so I can imagine them being like, yeah, you know, it's just I made a tactical retreat. They always love to talk in military terms. I'm like, so you so you ran away to a store. Yeah, the tactical retreat.
I made a tactical retreat.
I did ad a tumble into a dish.
Yeah, the face of maneuver kind of John Wick style. Oh so you jumped into a bush? Yeah, yeah, yeah, my.
Ankle pretty bad. Actually, I was laid up for a couple of weeks with that.
I don't know what a Connecticut accent sounds like, but I think this is just what I'm going to keep it as. So keep in mind, though, Buddy was almost a thousand pounds in weight, so we can forgive him for the tumble, for the very brave tumble. Of course, as word spread, reporters starting asking Terrible residents what they thought of the escape, if some of them were afraid, or if they felt a little different about it. So one of them said, they want to make steaks and
burgers from this animal. We don't want that. One putmouth resident who put food out in their backyard for buddies, said.
Well, good for him.
He knew it was coming and now he's out venturing. So this guy was from the very deep south of Connecticut. Of course, that's right, so is the word. As a word about Buddy spread. He got his Connecticut neighbors on his side, which is actually really cute. Local has created this Buddy t shirts and on September twelfth, a Buddy the Beefalo Twitter started spouting off right. The first tweet was on the run and having von hashtag live large
hashtag beefalow balling. What which Okay, which team are you are you on? Lauren? Is it beefalo bawling or just beffalo bolognas? Like what do you no?
It's it's beefelow balling. Look, I was a vegetarian for nine years. I came back holding me to the dark side. Yeah, which is fine. But but the point is is that I do feel a couple of things. One, I'm like, yeah, he he's an animal.
He's running. I can't fold him for that, wouldn't you? I would? I mean again, I ran away from an unmarked car.
But the point I think that it's bigger for me is just it's interesting to make a disconnect that it's like, well, there's also hundreds of others, Like he's just the one that got away. Like if you are opposed to him being killed, you kind of a pardon everybody? What do you want a beefalo population to go out of control?
And people are like I didn't even know if fucking Beefalo existed until like like I don't know, like you're forcing me to make a stance on something I just found out exists. So, okay, I don't know this Befalo is the Beefalo. But also, you know, like if he wants it bad enough, I'm like, you're kind of root for You're root for the underdog, don't you, or.
The under buff for the under buff.
Wow, I'm gonna the comedy community is going to write me a very strongly worded he about that one. I loved it. It was clear that Buddy had the sympathy of the public right The Plymouth police saw their chance to get people on their side. So rather than trying to capture Buddy to return him to the owners, they came up with a very different plan. They were captured Buddy so that they could set him free. We're here with Tom Blen, we're doing a tactical retreat and we're setting free hallelujah.
I have a lot of questions free. He's grew, he was born into captivity, like he's I guess he's proving.
I guess you're proving that you're on Beefalo bolognes side. Never never, I guess like maybe setting him free would be like relocating him to a farm would be my guest.
Okay, I supposed it's just like letting him freak in real Now we've got a wild beeflow population, like uh.
Oh something you can get all sorts of weird ship like a beef along, like he just starts mixing with everybody, a beef of shepherd, a beef of corky. It's gonna be really fucking weird.
Oh no, the legs.
So when the cops told the slaughterhouse they didn't want to bring Buddy back, that caused a little bit of an issue, right because they were told that a thousand pounds bfalow would bring in about six thousand dollars worth of meat, so that was a really steep price. But the police decided that they were up for the challenge, so they launched a gofundmeat to buy Buddy from the slaughterhouse. Wow, anything else to do in this town.
You guys are like, you're raising pandemic. It was a early pandemic. They needed a project.
I know, I'm sure homelessness is not a problem that you could help gofund me. No, no, no, let's set this bee folow free. Yep. Meanwhile, they stayed on Buddy's trail. Right, Captain Ed put his police dog Sarah into service to track Buddy down. Now is that a sniffing ben?
Wow?
It is so inside my ear. Wow, I feel weird. That was a may sniffing.
That was an actual dog.
Gods, I feel weird. So during the day, Captain Ed would pursue his normal police duties and in the evenings he was off his shift, so he would take Sarh and the two of them would collect the latest leads. Then they would head out to track buddy. Lauren, is this a heartwarming primetime sitcom or what? Like? You know? Off duty captain and is trusty hound turned private eyes and animal rescue?
I guess it's just for me. It's a lot of questions. First of all, are we eating buff like beef below?
Like that? I thought I was like worth of it?
Like how who is I have never heard of this in my life.
It feels to me like this is a way that they somehow save money braiding cows and we don't know and this is part of like the big beef conspiracy.
That's what the first thing is for me.
The second thing is is that in a world, in a country where so many people's and I look, we do have to get political, but.
Like, I just can't believe that this people lived this law.
Like the masses well, with so much food that goes to waste, I'm sure, I'm sure like one befalo won't make the difference. But yes, I hear you completely on your concerns. So let's turn to my overlords to see how much befalo is is in our food.
Befalo is in every pound of beef that you could buy the supermarket. Intact, beefalo is used to make to furky. Every pound of tofood that you buy is half beefl.
Wait, every pound of turkey that I buy is half fucking beefalo.
Have you ever tried to buy zucchini at the grocery store? You were actually trying to buy a log of befalo?
Was that a joke? Were you making funny?
Oh?
Wow? I was like, oh my god? Did you did you think he was serious? Lauren?
Why am I so shuck being lied to by the government?
Water shock? What's in our food? We love been eating beefalo and we did not know it existed.
This is like soiling greens, but for real, I I that is the nineteen seventies reference I bring to this show you're elderly.
I'm an elderly human.
So okay, so we got the captain. Is it a cute sitcom? Is it an obsession of a man? We don't know. But this went on for weeks and then months right then finally, so the guy would do his police stuff during the day and then at night chase Buddy down. So finally, in the fall, the owner of a local apple orchard, Nate, called the police station because he had spotted Buddy under his trees. Now that gave
Captain Ed an idea. Working together with Nate, Ed decided to stop chasing Buddy and instead, now that he knew where he was, they would bring Buddy to them. What would be your best beffalo trap design? What are you going to like lure befalo with?
I mean, ultimately, something that looks like a female bffalo. So I'm going to take like always do. Isn't it a leather couch.
I'm gonna put some lipstick on it, some fake eyelashes, you know what I mean?
I bet you there's a you there's like a thrift store in Portland that has just such a design. You know, I guarantee that they're like, we'll turn your your couches into cows and then we'll bring them back to life in a ceremony.
And then we just planted a speaker there and pump some female befalo mating sounds or whatever.
And easy which is it's coincidentally, dj cow, it's next remix. It's a mating female bffalo sounds the dj cal. I wonder if the female bffalo is also called the bfalo?
Oh, great question?
Or is it a befal gave it timmy carl. It's called befala.
It is called beef alita b falita, right, okaysh felita, I'm waiting for you.
Wow, so many nineties hits in my head at one time.
Again elderly.
So.
Their alluring plants started with a big ass animal trailer, right, one big enough to hold buddy if the biffalo would actually go inside. But that was surrounded by cattle fencing circled up around the trailer to create a coral, right, a corral. I believe you guys call it. I call it a coral. Fucking sue me. So leading towards the trailer, an open gate on the farest side offered Buddy away in right, So Captain ed got urine from a female cow u Biefelida to use his lure to draw Buddy
into the cage alongside some hay and some grain. So you were totally right kind of.
Well then I was a little more creative about it again the End of the World. I'd like to think that that's what the artists.
Writs, right, gave this woman a couch, She's gonna lure some dinner. So I wish we had the recording that conversation, right, Like if you have to approach the owner of a cattle herd, like, how would you go about asking for like cowpis, like female cowpis?
Well, I guess they have to hope that one of the female cows used the bathroom in the night and didn't flush the.
Toilet, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, there you go. But yeah, I just imagine that conver saying like, hey, hey are you doing? Hey, God bless you? So how's your mother?
Good?
Good? Good? So listen, I'm gonna need a little bit of animal smells, you know, for some sniffing. You got any uh, you got any colpis? Lying around. You know what kind of cop is I don't know if a female female cow, female beefelino cow.
I also, I want to hear the conversation with his wife or partner about this, like how is your day? Like, oh, I got it go down there. I had to source some female cow piss. I'm laying a trap. It's like you have been chasing this thing for a.
Month and a half. Eda Nate sat together in a truck nearby, holding onto a rope that held together the gate right, so if Buddy arrived to check on their trap, they would just pull the rope and close the gate and Buddy would be locked inside. Now thirty minutes later, there was a commotion just at the end of the clearing, a rustling from between the trees, and Eda Nate sat
in stone cold silence, trying not to move. I just got to say, also, you know how they say like men invented golf just so they could have an excuse to go on walks together. I feel like this is like their version of bonding and be like, yeah, we're just gonna catch a cow, and it's like yeah, but like if we want to talk about feelings while we're doing it like, why the fuck not?
You know, I guess it just never felt seen.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, let's go catch a beflow and let's talk about some shit. So so, from this commotion and the clearing outstepped our pal Buddy. He approached the corral, he spotted the open gate, and he walked inside. He made his way to that pile of piss and grain, and that's when Ed and the farmer sprang their trap. They jumped out of the truck and heaved the gate shut by pulling the rope. But these men had underestimated Buddy.
As the gate clang shut, he bolted not out the gate, nay, but directly through the cattle fencing, and the moment was caught on video. The large steel panels are thrown into the air and scattered around the trailer like they were barely more than cardboard.
I'm so invested in this story. This is such a great one. I can't even tell you. This is chaos.
It's got love, it's got romance.
It's got got everything you need.
I also want you to know I was taking notes at points because I was like, there's some points of this that I got to come back to.
So Buddy, the Bffalo stayed on the loose, but Ed Captain ED had more tricks up his sleeve now. In interviews, Captain Ed said that Buddy had become his white whale. He was determined to capture the Bffalo at almost any cost. Fortunately, the police gofund me had scooped up over nine thousand dollars, so all the expenses were covered in under a day. Now, all that was left to do was catched a beast. Lauren, would you have contributed to the hashtag beef a little bawling go fundme?
You know, Honestly, the more it think about it, maybe I don't know.
It was a time we're gonna remember this time though, this was September twenty twenty. We all needed a hero, We all wanted something, you know, and maybe the community felt, you know, brought together by all of this. I think it's just because it's you know again, it's like there's just so many of them. But I guess only one got away, so maybe he is special and I should be more supportive of yeah.
Specific Also I love the irony of, like, you know, the local townspeople watching this on the news and like rooting for Buddy while like eating a fucking twelve on steak, you know, like, oh man, I really hope he makes it out. I never had any b flow in my life, but you know, and little did they know that that's befelow that they're eating.
It is we've always this has been going on since eighteen seventy. I wrote that down. I was like, this is the greatest kept secret in the world.
That's right, and we reveal it. Whoh, I love that this is gonna like what if this is the last strand of sanity that the world was like leaning on. Like once this is revealed, everything just fucking snaps out of place and everything the apoos yep. So Captain Ed decided that he had a working strategy. He met with Nate and they agreed that Ed could rebuild the trap and use it again. So they build it again, stronger this time, and filled it again with grain and water
to lure Buddy in. Then they kept watch and despite their first encounter, Buddy did come back, probably because Buddy did not believe in their fucking skills. They're like, yeah, dude, okay, yeah, give me some grain. I'll be okay. And not just once Eda Nate kept the corral stocked, and Buddy started coming back regularly for the food and water. This just feels like they just had a pet.
To be honest, this is like, this just feels like it's just like feeding a stray cat. It's always going to keep coming back, you know what I mean.
Yeah, So Captain Nett started spending his evenings after work waiting for Buddy to appear. The police chief said that Captain net did not hunt Buddy during working hours. End quote. Hey, if my captain chooses the cheese a beefalow on his own time, he can do that. It's a frequentry. He's also even sigh uh, little known fact. So his weird hobby didn't jeopardize his work, but his boss doesn't really
sound thrilled about it. Right, So, when when Ed and Nate were staking out the trap more and more, this is sounding like they just wanted to bond, you know. Yeah, fuck it. So, when he was taking out the trap, rather than staying in Nate's truck, Ed would lie down inside the animal trailer itself. He set up cameras pointed at the makeshift ben where he hoped that he would
trap Buddy. He even borrowed night vision goggles from a fellow police officer and used a thermal camera from the police department inventory so he could spot Buddy when he was nearby and track his approach. According to one article, he supplied all of his own batteries for the police equipment he was using to keep watch for the runaway. Okay, Buddy, So does he have a bunker?
Is he hoarding batteries?
Is this all part of this?
So you have children? I want to know so much about Captain Ed's life.
So Ed was obsessed with the hunt, right, and as the months got colder, he found himself lying in the frigid steal trailer. He would get home from work, eat dinner with his wife, and then get up, bundle up in his jacket, and head for the orchard where he would lie in wait for Buddy. Now his wife came out with him a few times in the eight months that he was hunting Buddy down, but it was his obsession, not hers, and in an interview she said that she
mostly hoped they could just be sacking, you know. So Ed caught the buffalo many times on video. The recordings of his surveillance camera show Buddy repeatedly stepping into the pen, grabbing his food, and then high tailing it out of there again. Honestly, does this sound like they even want to catch the b flow? You know, they just want to play at cool surveillance gadgets away from their families on there.
If I may, I'd like to quote hit major motion picture Batman The Dark Knight. Yes, please do which is you know, I'm like a dog chasing a car. If it caught it, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I'm paraphrasing. The point is I win that particular line, Thank you very much. I'm very prolific in I have a great memory for quotes. The point is, I you know, it's some of them just want to watch the world burn. That one doesn't connect at all. But I just wanted
to prove I know a quote. The point is, I just am very curious to see how this story ends. And if he does catch it, it's like then what Like It's like, what's the next thing?
I got you? So, in an interview ed chalked it up to COVID right. He said it was twenty twenty and there was nothing better to do than lying the cold trailer and wait for a cow, which, to be honest, fair enough Buddy. So this carried on throughout winter. Okay, Buddy cut a path in the snow into the corral where he knew that there was always food waiting. Okay, But Eda and Nate could never keep him inside the
corral or coax him into the trailer. The bfalow just refused to get caught until one day in spring of twenty twenty one, Buddy didn't show up for his daily feeding. He was gone, gone gone. But by then the whole toown knew that Ed was the man on the hunt for Buddy. So soon the telephone was ringing down at
the police station. It was a different local farmer calling in to As it turned out, after two hundred and fifty days of freedom, plus a bayla hay and ten pounds of grain every single day through the winter months, Ed discovered that he no longer had to bring Buddy in. After a whole winter playing catch me if you can with Captain Ed, Buddy was found where he really wanted to be, and it wasn't in the makeshift corral with a chili cattle trailer and the weird dude lying in it.
In fact, Buddy had caught the scent of another local cattle farm and it brought him wandering over. This time he spotted a cluster of female cows. He jumped the fence into the pen, trapping himself with the ladies inside. Ladies, I know I've been out in the wild for far too long, but I hear this is the lady cow. Pis okay? Sorry. The local farmer marched them inside, locked them up, called Captain Net to let him know that
the fugitive had finally given up the game. Maybe all those nasty reports about him being aggressive were a bit off the mark. It seems like Buddy, what he really was, was lonely. It was Buddy himself who decided that his rampage to the woods of the Connecticut Wilderness was over. So Buddy he found his people. So once Buddy was caught, the money from the GoFundMe paid for the vet to check him out, and then they shipped him down south.
One of the officers said that they raised enough money in a single day to pay the vet plus the transportation, and we're paying Nate for all the food that he brought during winter. Buddy was taken in by Critter Creek Farm Animal Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida. They required a short quarantine adjustment period where Buddy got used to the climate so they could also make sure that he wouldn't bring any diseases to the other animals. Now are you hearing me?
They tried to luck Buddy up in a solitary pen, but it failed. Buddy escaped twice. They should have pretty much known better by this point. Don't you think like Buddy does not like being locked up?
Man?
No, He's made it quite clear he's been evading. He's been invading all capture for a really long time. Like you gotta gotta keep him in a barn or I don't even.
Know what, but you just gotta keep the cow piss flowing, that's all you gotta do. So eventually he once he was let out into the main pasture to mingle with the other cows and even a bison named Cinnamon, Buddy calmed down. Finally, Buddy was lonely no more.
Or no mo.
In April twenty twenty one, Captain Ed drove down to visit Buddy at the sanctuary in Florida. Apparently he tried to feed the beefalo bananas, but Buddy kept his distance. It's a little sad almost watching captain Ed try to entice Buddy over our best beef of of boy just will not be moved no matter what captain Ed offers him. I guess in some ways, the real chase goes on, and that's our story. Lauren, what do you think?
This is amazing?
I think that this was incredible. I loved the misdirect. I loved all the details. I loved the fact that early on in the story, I was going what crime did this convict commit? Like?
How dangerous of a convict is? I was taking notes, I was doing what I do during my normal show.
No.
Yeah, And I'm just glad that we have a really fun escape story for once with a happy ending and everything, because this show it doesn't really get a lot of those. And also, you know, in solidarity with Buddy and the entire Beefalo community, we're actually going to make a donation to the Critter Creek Farm on behalf of Captain Ed. So it's a real win win here.
Oh that's so kind.
Wait to be honest, it's a cool. It's cool as any abby man like I learned how to play chess. So that's you know, one hundred pre chase scout. Some people played chess. Where can listeners find your show, Lauren?
You can find us anywhere. The podcasts are available, True Crime and Cocktails. You can find us on all the socials. Also, if you look for that name.
To really go out with a bang, I'm gonna ask Ben to play some of that sexy seventies music he was playing in Yeah. I want to ask you, Lauren, to sing with me, yeah and say goodbye.
Oh, let's do it.
Yeah, be fellow. Can you feel the moomomum you go into?
Run way.
Is a coral?
Coral gonna eat a large bell of Hey, Lauren, thank you so much, Oh my god, this was too fun, truly.
Goodbye everybody. You see you next week. Radies Escapes is a production of iHeartRadio and Film Nation Entertainment and association with Gilded Audio. Our executive producers from Me are Turo Castro, Alyssa Martino and Milan Papelka from Film Nation Entertainment, Andrew Chugg and Witning Donaldson from Gilded Audio, and Dylan Fagan from iHeartRadio. The show is produced and edited by Carl Nellis and Ben Chugg, who are also, respectively, our research
overlord and music Overlord. Our associate producer is Tory Smith, who's our other overlord. Nick Dooley is our technical director. Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson. Special thanks to Alison Cohen, Dan Welsh, Ben Riizek, Sarah Joyner, Nicki Stein, Olivia Canny and Kelsey Albright. Hey, thank you so much for listening, and if you're enjoying the show, please drop a rating or review. My mom will call you each personally and thank you, and we'll see you all next week