Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to Greatest Escapes, the show bringing you
Speaker 1: the wildest true escape stories of all time. Not today,
Speaker 1: we're following a heartwarming tale, the story of an escapee
Speaker 1: who the whole community rallied around. He even got the
Speaker 1: police on his side. Very impressive. I'm Martro Castro, and
Speaker 1: I'm joined by a fantastic actress and comedian who also
Speaker 1: hosts a podcast, True Crime and Cocktails, Lauren Ash.
Speaker 2: Let's go, Lauren Ash bra blah blah.
Speaker 3: What a joy in my life, I think.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be here. I
Speaker 4: was so excited when I saw this come through my email.
Speaker 4: I was like, hell, yes, I cannot wait. This is
Speaker 4: the best.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where where you know the
Speaker 1: wonderful folks at Film Nation. I love Film Nation. Film
Speaker 1: Nation is great. I love them.
Speaker 5: Help me.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're plotting an escape.
Speaker 1: Well's nothing. I love them. They treat me so to
Speaker 1: her will not be escaping.
Speaker 3: Legally contractually bound? I gotcha, Lauren.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, do you have the greatest
Speaker 1: escape story?
Speaker 3: You know what's so funny?
Speaker 4: I was with my best friend of ten ten twenty
Speaker 4: years last night, Leslie Siler we met, Yes, we met
Speaker 4: twenty years ago this month and I said to her.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm doing this podcast and it's about escapes.
Speaker 4: And I was like, and I can't think it.
Speaker 3: She goes Boston and I went, that's it. Immediately she was.
Speaker 1: Like me, Mark Wahlberg is involved, Like, oh, Boddy, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go.
Speaker 3: We're gonna go, we're gonna get some sandwiches, We're gonna
Speaker 3: eat a lobstery.
Speaker 1: Okay, so tell me. So what happened in Boston?
Speaker 3: She and I again, we met twenty years ago.
Speaker 4: We were best friends, comedy partners, and we were going
Speaker 4: for this comedy festival in Boston and we were staying
Speaker 4: kind of far from the venue and so you had
Speaker 4: to take a like an uber or a cab.
Speaker 3: But this was kind of at the time when Uber.
Speaker 4: Was just starting. So for those of us we were like,
Speaker 4: how does it work?
Speaker 3: Do we have the app?
Speaker 4: We were still hailing cabs at this point right in
Speaker 4: the world, okay, and.
Speaker 1: It was hella expensive and like hard to get I
Speaker 1: remember totally totally.
Speaker 4: And so we we had come out of the hotel
Speaker 4: and we had so much stuff because we were doing
Speaker 4: a sketch comedy show, so I don't have to.
Speaker 1: Tell you Wigs Wiggs.
Speaker 4: We've got a lot of gear and we're waiting and
Speaker 4: we've somehow, for some reason, we like walked to half
Speaker 4: a block from the hotel and we were like, there's
Speaker 4: no cabs.
Speaker 3: What are we going to do? And then this car
Speaker 3: pulls up.
Speaker 4: It's a black car, it's a nice car, and this
Speaker 4: guy goes, where are you going?
Speaker 3: And we both were like, and he's like, I'll take you.
Speaker 4: And it was in this moment that I looked at
Speaker 4: her and she seemed okay with it, and she later
Speaker 4: told me that she looked at me and I seemed
Speaker 4: okay with it, when in reality, neither.
Speaker 3: Of us was okay with it.
Speaker 4: Wow, And so we were like, okay, I guess we're
Speaker 4: getting into this unmarked limo car thing we put our
Speaker 4: stuff in, but automatically now listen, this is pre me
Speaker 4: having a true crime podcast. But I was already I'm
Speaker 4: very familiar with the date lines.
Speaker 3: I know where this.
Speaker 1: Con is like one oh one, yeah, right.
Speaker 4: So on my phone, I've pulled up where we are
Speaker 4: supposed to be going, because again it's not our town
Speaker 4: and I'm watching, and then I have the true horror
Speaker 4: set in as I watched this man going the wrong
Speaker 4: way and he gets on a freeway and he's driving away.
Speaker 3: From where we need to go.
Speaker 4: And in this moment, this is when I my anxiety
Speaker 4: brain takes over. And I told her later that I
Speaker 4: was like, this is the picture that my brain painted.
Speaker 4: I was like, he was gonna drive us to an
Speaker 4: abandoned airport hangar and that's where we get murdered.
Speaker 1: A very yes, very niche. There's so many of them,
Speaker 1: you know, people don't know. It's a rampant abandonment of
Speaker 1: air hangers in the East Coast.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: But in this moment, so this is all this move,
Speaker 4: I'm playing the movie of the rest of the end
Speaker 4: of my life in my head and I'm watching him
Speaker 4: go past exit after exit, and after the third exit,
Speaker 4: the further we're getting from the from where we're supposed
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 3: I'm Canadian? Can I curse on this show?
Speaker 1: Do we curse?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Fuck it?
Speaker 4: So in this moment, I was like something took over
Speaker 4: in me, and again fight to the death, I guess
Speaker 4: came out even though I never predicted it. And I
Speaker 4: was like listen, motherfucker, you're going the wrong fucking way,
Speaker 4: and you're gonna get.
Speaker 3: Off this freeway.
Speaker 1: You're gonna take this turn.
Speaker 3: You're gonna win. And he was like okay, whoa and
Speaker 3: he did.
Speaker 4: And then I was like, listen, from here on out,
Speaker 4: I am navigating, not you. And I was like telling
Speaker 4: him where to go, and he drove us there. And
Speaker 4: I don't know what his ultimate goal was. I think
Speaker 4: it was just taking us for a ride to get
Speaker 4: more money. I think that ultimately it was not necessarily nefarious.
Speaker 4: But ultimately I think what I showed was this isn't
Speaker 4: going to be easy for you.
Speaker 3: This is not gonna be fun.
Speaker 4: But the best part was we finally arrive at our destination,
Speaker 4: which should have been about a fifteen dollars ride, and
Speaker 4: he asked for seventy five.
Speaker 1: Oh fucking dare he? Also, I love the idea of
Speaker 1: you combating a serial killer with assertiveness, Like that's like
Speaker 1: they're like, oh no, I've been foiled. Somebody spoke with
Speaker 1: the station.
Speaker 4: This depends on the kind of ride that guy's looking for.
Speaker 4: Don't pardon the pun, but again, it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: it was like, this is gonna be too much trouble
Speaker 4: for you for you do, but I'll never be.
Speaker 1: You're right, people want easy prey.
Speaker 4: Yes, but what we have said ever since then, this
Speaker 4: is the follow up to this, is that it was
Speaker 4: like we escaped death potential death once.
Speaker 3: We can never court it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get the one.
Speaker 3: Ge get one and that's it.
Speaker 1: You're Canadian, you might get two.
Speaker 3: We consider ourselves good global citizens for the most part.
Speaker 1: That's right. I'm another brush with death. Don't don't you
Speaker 1: worry about it? Like, put yourself at a risk, take
Speaker 1: that extra shot, jump in that car. Yeah, absolutely, Ben,
Speaker 1: Can you give me that cool like chapter music? Please?
Speaker 1: You know when we changed chapter Ben, Ben, no, man,
Speaker 1: like you remember, it was like more emotional, like what
Speaker 1: did we do last last one? We're gonna cut all
Speaker 1: this out? But yeah, definitely oh this one, yes, like
Speaker 1: turn yes please? Okay, So I'm gonna go, Ben, give
Speaker 1: us some good chapter music. God damn it, man, we
Speaker 1: just talked about it. Today. We start inside a prisoner
Speaker 1: transport rattling down the Massachusetts Highway. They're being shipped out
Speaker 1: of state to nearby Connecticut because everyone inside is scheduled
Speaker 1: for execution.
Speaker 4: Oh no, so Massachusetts we're we're in the same world here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, And they were all being been by
Speaker 1: a nounmarked vehicle. It was August third, twenty twenty. Along
Speaker 1: with the other prisoners, Buddy pulled up alongside the new
Speaker 1: facility and they jostled each other nervously as they came
Speaker 1: to a stop. After four years penned up in Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: he had been carted to Plymouth, Connecticut to die. Oh
Speaker 1: what do you know about the death penalty in Massachusetts?
Speaker 3: Uh? You know what I should know more?
Speaker 4: I have a true crime podcast after two years, but
Speaker 4: I wasn't aware that it was in existence in Massachusetts anymore.
Speaker 1: My capital punishment was overturned for state crimes in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty four. Only federal crimes were punishable by death, so
Speaker 1: Connecticut kept the death penalty for much much longer. So
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, Buddy was scheduled for execution, but he
Speaker 1: had different ideas. Okay, so this was the first time
Speaker 1: Massachusetts and Connecticut facilities had actually worked together, and the
Speaker 1: handoff wasn't really the smoothest okay. In fact, when he
Speaker 1: was being unloaded, Buddy saw his chance. Somehow he was
Speaker 1: able to slip past the restraints, dodged the guards, and
Speaker 1: hall ass right to freedom. Oh there was a super
Speaker 1: thick forest nearby, and Buddy dove into the trees and
Speaker 1: totally disappeared. So it was an impulsive escape, you know,
Speaker 1: he saw his opportunity and he took it. But whoever
Speaker 1: said that it takes elaborate planning for an escape to
Speaker 1: be great, right, This one was pure instinct. Buddy just
Speaker 1: disappeared into the woods around Plymouth, Connecticut. Now he wasn't
Speaker 1: hiding for long. In fact, multiple nine one one calls
Speaker 1: came in when Buddy was spotted crossing the highway nearby.
Speaker 1: The police were so quick on his sail. But Buddy
Speaker 1: wasn't easy to catch. You know. He was a really
Speaker 1: big dude, like terrifyingly big, and he was super fast too,
Speaker 1: so once he got into the trees, he easily lost
Speaker 1: everyone who was on his trail. Oh my god. Now
Speaker 1: the police contemplated lethal force, but said it would only
Speaker 1: be necessary if Buddy started to roam the streets and
Speaker 1: threaten the public in Terryville, so it was like a
Speaker 1: conditional lethal force action. It was more than three weeks later,
Speaker 1: on August twenty seventh, that the police finally put the
Speaker 1: word out that he was on the loose. The Plymouth
Speaker 1: Police posted on their Facebook page that they were were
Speaker 1: working with the two other agencies to recapture the eskpee.
Speaker 1: He had been last seen along Connecticut's Route seventy two, So.
Speaker 3: They waited three weeks to alert the public.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's because of Yeah, it's hard to
Speaker 1: admit when you pulled the dumbass act.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: I guess when he did get away, he slipped away
Speaker 3: so easily.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess maybe that's a tough thing to be. Like, Hey,
Speaker 4: guys are bad.
Speaker 1: Also, I love the idea that they're like, we have
Speaker 1: to announce it somehow, we have to Okay, just put
Speaker 1: it on the fucking Facebook page. Okay, nobody reads that one.
Speaker 1: They actually printed it on their MySpace page. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: it was there.
Speaker 3: We put it out.
Speaker 1: We put it up there. Man, Yeah, you know, we've
Speaker 1: announced it. You guys just didn't check high five dot
Speaker 1: com at that time. Oh my god. So, for the
Speaker 1: most part, Buddy was a really talented fugitive. He stayed
Speaker 1: under the cover of the woods, ate his food super raw,
Speaker 1: and stayed quiet. Even so, the town of Terryville was
Speaker 1: told to be cautious. The police said that Buddy was
Speaker 1: aggressive and a confrontation with him would cause serious injuries.
Speaker 1: The town was cautioned to keep their distance and call
Speaker 1: nine to one one on site.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: On Monday, September one, twenty twenty, the state drone unit
Speaker 1: was basically a couple of gamers down in Connecticut being like,
Speaker 1: y'all do it, I got nothing else to do, as
Speaker 1: well as local and state officers combed the woods along
Speaker 1: Judd Road and Rout seventy two on the north side
Speaker 1: of Terrible Connecticut. Buddy had been at large for almost
Speaker 1: a month by this point. Now the local police captain
Speaker 1: on the case. His name is Edward Benecki. Am I
Speaker 1: saying that, right, overlord? That is correct? Okay, So Edward
Speaker 1: Benecki had previously seen I'm sorry to all my Italian
Speaker 1: American friends had previously worked enforcement on narcotics, on gangs
Speaker 1: and firearms trafficking, right, but this was something completely new.
Speaker 1: Buddy was massive and quick, so capturing him was difficult.
Speaker 1: Some would say he's a survivalist, you know, like if
Speaker 1: he were on a survival TV show game, he'd definitely
Speaker 1: be the star. How well would you do, Lauren? You
Speaker 1: want to survivor show alone? What's no there's one called
Speaker 1: yes naked and a frame. There's one just called alone,
Speaker 1: I think, and it's like so fucking.
Speaker 4: Scary, the ones where they drop you in the middle
Speaker 4: of the woods and you're completely nude, and it's like
Speaker 4: figure it out. That is what would happen to me
Speaker 4: in like a purgatory situation after death if I did
Speaker 4: bad things in life, like I.
Speaker 3: Don't want to camp. I don't want a glamp, no.
Speaker 4: Shower, man shower, Because here's my question, how is camping
Speaker 4: anything other than bragging?
Speaker 3: It is bragging that I can survive.
Speaker 1: That I don't.
Speaker 3: I have no I can be humble and say I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Well, you know you also realize, like as actors, like
Speaker 1: how meaningless our skills are in an apocalypse, Like I mean, well,
Speaker 1: everybody's like, you know this community used to say this,
Speaker 1: and I love her for you, but she's like she's
Speaker 1: like she would be walking around with an almond being
Speaker 1: like can anybody turn this into milk? Can anybody in me?
Speaker 1: I would be like, yeah, I don't really hunt or
Speaker 1: like digs.
Speaker 4: For stuff, but we just have to hope that people
Speaker 4: still want entertainment.
Speaker 3: I think that that's it, Like you gotta hope that.
Speaker 4: Like, I mean, the musicians did go down with the Titanic,
Speaker 4: so that's maybe not a great comparison.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody was to make sure the musicians get in first.
Speaker 6: You know, the.
Speaker 1: Music must live on, the music must live on.
Speaker 3: Going get the laughs.
Speaker 1: I would learn to tap dance or something super marketable.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, you guys need some tap dancing. So
Speaker 1: ed this ed Biniki thought that he could corner Buddy
Speaker 1: because Buddy was also young. You know, in fact, Buddy
Speaker 1: was only four years old. Here's where we have, Lauren,
Speaker 1: what do you think Buddy actually is a Number one,
Speaker 1: we have a sadistic doll possessed by an evil spirit
Speaker 1: of a serial killer. Number two is he a top
Speaker 1: secret early prototype kinetic robotic system that developed artificial intelligence?
Speaker 1: Or Number three a beefalo escaping slaughter? Wait a second,
Speaker 1: what's a beefalo? Don't worry about it. Is it a bfalo?
Speaker 1: Is it a top secret prototype or a sadistic doll?
Speaker 3: Okay, well, you said he was big, You said he
Speaker 3: was young.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 4: You said he was able to eat raw food, and
Speaker 4: he could evade things and we couldn't shoot him. I
Speaker 4: don't know what a beefalo is, but part of me
Speaker 4: wonders if it is a cow buffalo hybrid that for
Speaker 4: some reason.
Speaker 1: Ding ding ding ding ding, you got it. I didn't
Speaker 1: mean to say, you don't worry about it, but they
Speaker 1: told me I couldn't tell you what it was, so no,
Speaker 1: I I am, yeah, I am under contract. They're so
Speaker 1: nice to me. I love them so much.
Speaker 3: I'm going to send you a burner phone.
Speaker 1: Okay, I actually, yes, please give me. Yeah. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what a beefalo was either, but I think the
Speaker 1: name is fucking hilarious. So yeah, it's a beefo. Is
Speaker 1: a is a bison mixed with with a cow? I believe?
Speaker 1: Or right? Am I?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: Guys, yes, sir, A beefalo is a bison cow hybrid.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is amazing. I love this turn. This is fantastic,
Speaker 3: so listen.
Speaker 1: It turns out Buddy's only crime was being born a beefalo.
Speaker 1: Oh so bison, you know, they are lean and mean,
Speaker 1: and cows are docile but carry less meat, so when
Speaker 1: they crossbread In the eighteen seventies, it was supposed to
Speaker 1: make the perfect healthy meat animal, as lean as a bison,
Speaker 1: but as gentle as a cow. They have been tested
Speaker 1: as having higher vitamin levels and more protein than beef,
Speaker 1: and they were supposed to be easily led from the
Speaker 1: feed lot to the killing floor. Now you can visit
Speaker 1: American beefalo Association dot com for the full picture, which
Speaker 1: is actually a thing which I love. But the point
Speaker 1: is that Buddy the beefalow was literally bred for slaughter,
Speaker 1: but he was not planning to be merchandise. Nay, not Buddy,
Speaker 1: my friend. In fact, his initial escape was just the beginning.
Speaker 1: Give me a mood sound, will you?
Speaker 3: Ma oh?
Speaker 1: She was about yes and yeah, of course, Lauren, you're welcome.
Speaker 5: You're welcome to make any sound effects you would like.
Speaker 1: Yes, sorry, Lauren, but I wouldn't ask you so so
Speaker 1: so succinctly, I would be appreciate, do you mind? So, Lauren?
Speaker 1: Now that we know that the escapee is actually a
Speaker 1: b falow, what we got here is a really lighthearted story,
Speaker 1: right like this happened early in the pandemic, and to me,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it really showcases the like the power
Speaker 1: of community and how we all needed a little optimism
Speaker 1: and a little comedy in that time, you know, so
Speaker 1: let's have some fun with it. Yeah, now, Bud, his
Speaker 1: escape was pretty unusual. The slaughterhouse he ran away from
Speaker 1: was a full service facility.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: They did the slaughtering and the butchering, packaging, shipping out
Speaker 1: of cuts of Primo b Falow everywhere ever. You got
Speaker 1: to be follow, You got to be follow. That's all
Speaker 1: they did. They were the real pros and they weren't
Speaker 1: used to their animals escaping, so obviously neither were the
Speaker 1: local cops. After the police put out an APV on Buddy,
Speaker 1: Captain ed bickhetdie what is it, mckheeddie, sorry, Captain ed Mineki.
Speaker 1: Captain ed Minecki gave a statement to the press. He
Speaker 1: said that at one point there was an officer who
Speaker 1: had cornered Buddy, but in that's words, I quote, yeah,
Speaker 1: he approached the animal, but the animal put his head
Speaker 1: down and started to pall the ground aggressively or scratched
Speaker 1: the ground real aggressive like. So at the time the
Speaker 1: sergeant tactically relocated, which is another term for he to
Speaker 1: retreat it from the area. What excuse, what excuse would
Speaker 1: you make to save face when you're basically telling people
Speaker 1: that an angry moo moo freaked you out, you.
Speaker 3: Know, a angry moo. Yeah, I like that term a lot.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think I think it's fair to say
Speaker 4: I felt like I was going to be charged.
Speaker 3: But I guess my question then.
Speaker 4: Would just be and I know this isn't answering your
Speaker 4: question directly, but if he's kind of menacing to you,
Speaker 4: then I feel like you do have permission to use
Speaker 4: deadly force because the whole point was right, So, yeah,
Speaker 4: it kind of feels like in that moment, you got
Speaker 4: to come up with something else, which I guess then
Speaker 4: I would just be like, I am a vegan, I'm
Speaker 4: a vegitarian, and I couldn't ethically.
Speaker 1: So I have found Buddhism in that moment where he
Speaker 1: was stomping on the ground, right. But so I can
Speaker 1: imagine them being like, yeah, you know, it's just I
Speaker 1: made a tactical retreat. They always love to talk in
Speaker 1: military terms. I'm like, so you so you ran away
Speaker 1: to a store. Yeah, the tactical retreat.
Speaker 3: I made a tactical retreat.
Speaker 4: I did ad a tumble into a dish.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the face of maneuver kind of John Wick style.
Speaker 1: Oh so you jumped into a bush? Yeah, yeah, yeah, my.
Speaker 3: Ankle pretty bad. Actually, I was laid up for a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks with that.
Speaker 1: I don't know what a Connecticut accent sounds like, but
Speaker 1: I think this is just what I'm going to keep
Speaker 1: it as. So keep in mind, though, Buddy was almost
Speaker 1: a thousand pounds in weight, so we can forgive him
Speaker 1: for the tumble, for the very brave tumble. Of course,
Speaker 1: as word spread, reporters starting asking Terrible residents what they
Speaker 1: thought of the escape, if some of them were afraid,
Speaker 1: or if they felt a little different about it. So
Speaker 1: one of them said, they want to make steaks and
Speaker 1: burgers from this animal. We don't want that. One putmouth
Speaker 1: resident who put food out in their backyard for buddies, said.
Speaker 3: Well, good for him.
Speaker 1: He knew it was coming and now he's out venturing.
Speaker 1: So this guy was from the very deep south of Connecticut.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's right, so is the word. As a
Speaker 1: word about Buddy spread. He got his Connecticut neighbors on
Speaker 1: his side, which is actually really cute. Local has created
Speaker 1: this Buddy t shirts and on September twelfth, a Buddy
Speaker 1: the Beefalo Twitter started spouting off right. The first tweet
Speaker 1: was on the run and having von hashtag live large
Speaker 1: hashtag beefalow balling. What which Okay, which team are you
Speaker 1: are you on? Lauren? Is it beefalo bawling or just
Speaker 1: beffalo bolognas? Like what do you no?
Speaker 4: It's it's beefelow balling. Look, I was a vegetarian for
Speaker 4: nine years. I came back holding me to the dark side. Yeah,
Speaker 4: which is fine. But but the point is is that
Speaker 4: I do feel a couple of things. One, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: he he's an animal.
Speaker 3: He's running. I can't fold him for that, wouldn't you?
Speaker 3: I would? I mean again, I ran away from an
Speaker 3: unmarked car.
Speaker 4: But the point I think that it's bigger for me
Speaker 4: is just it's interesting to make a disconnect that it's like, well,
Speaker 4: there's also hundreds of others, Like he's just the one
Speaker 4: that got away. Like if you are opposed to him
Speaker 4: being killed, you kind of a pardon everybody? What do
Speaker 4: you want a beefalo population to go out of control?
Speaker 1: And people are like I didn't even know if fucking
Speaker 1: Beefalo existed until like like I don't know, like you're
Speaker 1: forcing me to make a stance on something I just
Speaker 1: found out exists. So, okay, I don't know this Befalo
Speaker 1: is the Beefalo. But also, you know, like if he
Speaker 1: wants it bad enough, I'm like, you're kind of root
Speaker 1: for You're root for the underdog, don't you, or.
Speaker 3: The under buff for the under buff.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm gonna the comedy community is going to write
Speaker 1: me a very strongly worded he about that one. I
Speaker 1: loved it. It was clear that Buddy had the sympathy
Speaker 1: of the public right The Plymouth police saw their chance
Speaker 1: to get people on their side. So rather than trying
Speaker 1: to capture Buddy to return him to the owners, they
Speaker 1: came up with a very different plan. They were captured
Speaker 1: Buddy so that they could set him free. We're here
Speaker 1: with Tom Blen, we're doing a tactical retreat and we're
Speaker 1: setting free hallelujah.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of questions free. He's grew, he
Speaker 4: was born into captivity, like he's I guess he's proving.
Speaker 1: I guess you're proving that you're on Beefalo bolognes side.
Speaker 1: Never never, I guess like maybe setting him free would
Speaker 1: be like relocating him to a farm would be my guest.
Speaker 4: Okay, I supposed it's just like letting him freak in
Speaker 4: real Now we've got a wild beeflow population, like uh.
Speaker 1: Oh something you can get all sorts of weird ship
Speaker 1: like a beef along, like he just starts mixing with everybody,
Speaker 1: a beef of shepherd, a beef of corky. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be really fucking weird.
Speaker 3: Oh no, the legs.
Speaker 1: So when the cops told the slaughterhouse they didn't want
Speaker 1: to bring Buddy back, that caused a little bit of
Speaker 1: an issue, right because they were told that a thousand
Speaker 1: pounds bfalow would bring in about six thousand dollars worth
Speaker 1: of meat, so that was a really steep price. But
Speaker 1: the police decided that they were up for the challenge,
Speaker 1: so they launched a gofundmeat to buy Buddy from the slaughterhouse. Wow,
Speaker 1: anything else to do in this town.
Speaker 3: You guys are like, you're raising pandemic. It was a
Speaker 3: early pandemic. They needed a project.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm sure homelessness is not a problem that
Speaker 1: you could help gofund me. No, no, no, let's set
Speaker 1: this bee folow free. Yep. Meanwhile, they stayed on Buddy's trail. Right,
Speaker 1: Captain Ed put his police dog Sarah into service to
Speaker 1: track Buddy down. Now is that a sniffing ben?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: It is so inside my ear. Wow, I feel weird.
Speaker 1: That was a may sniffing.
Speaker 3: That was an actual dog.
Speaker 1: Gods, I feel weird. So during the day, Captain Ed
Speaker 1: would pursue his normal police duties and in the evenings
Speaker 1: he was off his shift, so he would take Sarh
Speaker 1: and the two of them would collect the latest leads.
Speaker 1: Then they would head out to track buddy. Lauren, is
Speaker 1: this a heartwarming primetime sitcom or what? Like? You know?
Speaker 1: Off duty captain and is trusty hound turned private eyes
Speaker 1: and animal rescue?
Speaker 3: I guess it's just for me. It's a lot of questions.
Speaker 3: First of all, are we eating buff like beef below?
Speaker 1: Like that? I thought I was like worth of it?
Speaker 3: Like how who is I have never heard of this
Speaker 3: in my life.
Speaker 4: It feels to me like this is a way that
Speaker 4: they somehow save money braiding cows and we don't know
Speaker 4: and this is part of like the big beef conspiracy.
Speaker 3: That's what the first thing is for me.
Speaker 4: The second thing is is that in a world, in
Speaker 4: a country where so many people's and I look, we
Speaker 4: do have to get political, but.
Speaker 3: Like, I just can't believe that this people lived this law.
Speaker 1: Like the masses well, with so much food that goes
Speaker 1: to waste, I'm sure, I'm sure like one befalo won't
Speaker 1: make the difference. But yes, I hear you completely on
Speaker 1: your concerns. So let's turn to my overlords to see
Speaker 1: how much befalo is is in our food.
Speaker 5: Befalo is in every pound of beef that you could
Speaker 5: buy the supermarket. Intact, beefalo is used to make to furky.
Speaker 5: Every pound of tofood that you buy is half beefl.
Speaker 1: Wait, every pound of turkey that I buy is half
Speaker 1: fucking beefalo.
Speaker 5: Have you ever tried to buy zucchini at the grocery store?
Speaker 5: You were actually trying to buy a log of befalo?
Speaker 1: Was that a joke? Were you making funny?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 1: Wow? I was like, oh my god? Did you did
Speaker 1: you think he was serious? Lauren?
Speaker 3: Why am I so shuck being lied to by the government?
Speaker 1: Water shock? What's in our food? We love been eating
Speaker 1: beefalo and we did not know it existed.
Speaker 4: This is like soiling greens, but for real, I I
Speaker 4: that is the nineteen seventies reference I bring to this
Speaker 4: show you're elderly.
Speaker 3: I'm an elderly human.
Speaker 1: So okay, so we got the captain. Is it a
Speaker 1: cute sitcom? Is it an obsession of a man? We
Speaker 1: don't know. But this went on for weeks and then
Speaker 1: months right then finally, so the guy would do his
Speaker 1: police stuff during the day and then at night chase
Speaker 1: Buddy down. So finally, in the fall, the owner of
Speaker 1: a local apple orchard, Nate, called the police station because
Speaker 1: he had spotted Buddy under his trees. Now that gave
Speaker 1: Captain Ed an idea. Working together with Nate, Ed decided
Speaker 1: to stop chasing Buddy and instead, now that he knew
Speaker 1: where he was, they would bring Buddy to them. What
Speaker 1: would be your best beffalo trap design? What are you
Speaker 1: going to like lure befalo with?
Speaker 3: I mean, ultimately, something that looks like a female bffalo.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to take like always do. Isn't it
Speaker 3: a leather couch.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna put some lipstick on it, some fake eyelashes,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I bet you there's a you there's like a thrift
Speaker 1: store in Portland that has just such a design. You know,
Speaker 1: I guarantee that they're like, we'll turn your your couches
Speaker 1: into cows and then we'll bring them back to life
Speaker 1: in a ceremony.
Speaker 4: And then we just planted a speaker there and pump
Speaker 4: some female befalo mating sounds or whatever.
Speaker 1: And easy which is it's coincidentally, dj cow, it's next remix.
Speaker 1: It's a mating female bffalo sounds the dj cal. I
Speaker 1: wonder if the female bffalo is also called the bfalo?
Speaker 3: Oh, great question?
Speaker 1: Or is it a befal gave it timmy carl. It's
Speaker 1: called befala.
Speaker 5: It is called beef alita b falita, right, okaysh felita,
Speaker 5: I'm waiting for you.
Speaker 1: Wow, so many nineties hits in my head at one time.
Speaker 3: Again elderly.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: Their alluring plants started with a big ass animal trailer, right,
Speaker 1: one big enough to hold buddy if the biffalo would
Speaker 1: actually go inside. But that was surrounded by cattle fencing
Speaker 1: circled up around the trailer to create a coral, right,
Speaker 1: a corral. I believe you guys call it. I call
Speaker 1: it a coral. Fucking sue me. So leading towards the trailer,
Speaker 1: an open gate on the farest side offered Buddy away
Speaker 1: in right, So Captain ed got urine from a female
Speaker 1: cow u Biefelida to use his lure to draw Buddy
Speaker 1: into the cage alongside some hay and some grain. So
Speaker 1: you were totally right kind of.
Speaker 3: Well then I was a little more creative about it
Speaker 3: again the End of the World. I'd like to think
Speaker 3: that that's what the artists.
Speaker 1: Writs, right, gave this woman a couch, She's gonna lure
Speaker 1: some dinner. So I wish we had the recording that conversation, right,
Speaker 1: Like if you have to approach the owner of a
Speaker 1: cattle herd, like, how would you go about asking for
Speaker 1: like cowpis, like female cowpis?
Speaker 4: Well, I guess they have to hope that one of
Speaker 4: the female cows used the bathroom in the night and
Speaker 4: didn't flush the.
Speaker 1: Toilet, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just imagine that conver saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: hey are you doing? Hey, God bless you? So how's
Speaker 1: your mother?
Speaker 6: Good?
Speaker 1: Good? Good? So listen, I'm gonna need a little bit
Speaker 1: of animal smells, you know, for some sniffing. You got
Speaker 1: any uh, you got any colpis? Lying around. You know
Speaker 1: what kind of cop is I don't know if a
Speaker 1: female female cow, female beefelino cow.
Speaker 4: I also, I want to hear the conversation with his
Speaker 4: wife or partner about this, like how is your day? Like, oh,
Speaker 4: I got it go down there. I had to source
Speaker 4: some female cow piss. I'm laying a trap. It's like
Speaker 4: you have been chasing this thing for a.
Speaker 1: Month and a half. Eda Nate sat together in a
Speaker 1: truck nearby, holding onto a rope that held together the
Speaker 1: gate right, so if Buddy arrived to check on their trap,
Speaker 1: they would just pull the rope and close the gate
Speaker 1: and Buddy would be locked inside. Now thirty minutes later,
Speaker 1: there was a commotion just at the end of the clearing,
Speaker 1: a rustling from between the trees, and Eda Nate sat
Speaker 1: in stone cold silence, trying not to move. I just
Speaker 1: got to say, also, you know how they say like
Speaker 1: men invented golf just so they could have an excuse
Speaker 1: to go on walks together. I feel like this is
Speaker 1: like their version of bonding and be like, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna catch a cow, and it's like yeah, but
Speaker 1: like if we want to talk about feelings while we're
Speaker 1: doing it like, why the fuck not?
Speaker 3: You know, I guess it just never felt seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, let's go catch a beflow and
Speaker 1: let's talk about some shit. So so, from this commotion
Speaker 1: and the clearing outstepped our pal Buddy. He approached the corral,
Speaker 1: he spotted the open gate, and he walked inside. He
Speaker 1: made his way to that pile of piss and grain,
Speaker 1: and that's when Ed and the farmer sprang their trap.
Speaker 1: They jumped out of the truck and heaved the gate
Speaker 1: shut by pulling the rope. But these men had underestimated Buddy.
Speaker 1: As the gate clang shut, he bolted not out the gate, nay,
Speaker 1: but directly through the cattle fencing, and the moment was
Speaker 1: caught on video. The large steel panels are thrown into
Speaker 1: the air and scattered around the trailer like they were
Speaker 1: barely more than cardboard.
Speaker 3: I'm so invested in this story. This is such a
Speaker 3: great one. I can't even tell you. This is chaos.
Speaker 1: It's got love, it's got romance.
Speaker 3: It's got got everything you need.
Speaker 4: I also want you to know I was taking notes
Speaker 4: at points because I was like, there's some points of
Speaker 4: this that I got to come back to.
Speaker 1: So Buddy, the Bffalo stayed on the loose, but Ed
Speaker 1: Captain ED had more tricks up his sleeve now. In interviews,
Speaker 1: Captain Ed said that Buddy had become his white whale.
Speaker 1: He was determined to capture the Bffalo at almost any cost. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the police gofund me had scooped up over nine thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: so all the expenses were covered in under a day. Now,
Speaker 1: all that was left to do was catched a beast. Lauren,
Speaker 1: would you have contributed to the hashtag beef a little
Speaker 1: bawling go fundme?
Speaker 3: You know, Honestly, the more it think about it, maybe
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: It was a time we're gonna remember this time though,
Speaker 4: this was September twenty twenty. We all needed a hero,
Speaker 4: We all wanted something, you know, and maybe the community felt,
Speaker 4: you know, brought together by all of this. I think
Speaker 4: it's just because it's you know again, it's like there's
Speaker 4: just so many of them. But I guess only one
Speaker 4: got away, so maybe he is special and I should
Speaker 4: be more supportive of yeah.
Speaker 1: Specific Also I love the irony of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the local townspeople watching this on the news and like
Speaker 1: rooting for Buddy while like eating a fucking twelve on steak,
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh man, I really hope he makes
Speaker 1: it out. I never had any b flow in my life,
Speaker 1: but you know, and little did they know that that's
Speaker 1: befelow that they're eating.
Speaker 3: It is we've always this has been going on since
Speaker 3: eighteen seventy. I wrote that down. I was like, this
Speaker 3: is the greatest kept secret in the world.
Speaker 1: That's right, and we reveal it. Whoh, I love that
Speaker 1: this is gonna like what if this is the last
Speaker 1: strand of sanity that the world was like leaning on.
Speaker 1: Like once this is revealed, everything just fucking snaps out
Speaker 1: of place and everything the apoos yep. So Captain Ed
Speaker 1: decided that he had a working strategy. He met with
Speaker 1: Nate and they agreed that Ed could rebuild the trap
Speaker 1: and use it again. So they build it again, stronger
Speaker 1: this time, and filled it again with grain and water
Speaker 1: to lure Buddy in. Then they kept watch and despite
Speaker 1: their first encounter, Buddy did come back, probably because Buddy
Speaker 1: did not believe in their fucking skills. They're like, yeah, dude, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: give me some grain. I'll be okay. And not just
Speaker 1: once Eda Nate kept the corral stocked, and Buddy started
Speaker 1: coming back regularly for the food and water. This just
Speaker 1: feels like they just had a pet.
Speaker 3: To be honest, this is like, this just feels like
Speaker 3: it's just like feeding a stray cat. It's always going
Speaker 3: to keep coming back, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Captain Nett started spending his evenings after work
Speaker 1: waiting for Buddy to appear. The police chief said that
Speaker 1: Captain net did not hunt Buddy during working hours. End quote. Hey,
Speaker 1: if my captain chooses the cheese a beefalow on his
Speaker 1: own time, he can do that. It's a frequentry. He's
Speaker 1: also even sigh uh, little known fact. So his weird
Speaker 1: hobby didn't jeopardize his work, but his boss doesn't really
Speaker 1: sound thrilled about it. Right, So, when when Ed and
Speaker 1: Nate were staking out the trap more and more, this
Speaker 1: is sounding like they just wanted to bond, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fuck it. So, when he was taking out the trap,
Speaker 1: rather than staying in Nate's truck, Ed would lie down
Speaker 1: inside the animal trailer itself. He set up cameras pointed
Speaker 1: at the makeshift ben where he hoped that he would
Speaker 1: trap Buddy. He even borrowed night vision goggles from a
Speaker 1: fellow police officer and used a thermal camera from the
Speaker 1: police department inventory so he could spot Buddy when he
Speaker 1: was nearby and track his approach. According to one article,
Speaker 1: he supplied all of his own batteries for the police
Speaker 1: equipment he was using to keep watch for the runaway. Okay, Buddy,
Speaker 1: So does he have a bunker?
Speaker 3: Is he hoarding batteries?
Speaker 1: Is this all part of this?
Speaker 3: So you have children? I want to know so much
Speaker 3: about Captain Ed's life.
Speaker 1: So Ed was obsessed with the hunt, right, and as
Speaker 1: the months got colder, he found himself lying in the
Speaker 1: frigid steal trailer. He would get home from work, eat
Speaker 1: dinner with his wife, and then get up, bundle up
Speaker 1: in his jacket, and head for the orchard where he
Speaker 1: would lie in wait for Buddy. Now his wife came
Speaker 1: out with him a few times in the eight months
Speaker 1: that he was hunting Buddy down, but it was his obsession,
Speaker 1: not hers, and in an interview she said that she
Speaker 1: mostly hoped they could just be sacking, you know. So
Speaker 1: Ed caught the buffalo many times on video. The recordings
Speaker 1: of his surveillance camera show Buddy repeatedly stepping into the pen,
Speaker 1: grabbing his food, and then high tailing it out of
Speaker 1: there again. Honestly, does this sound like they even want
Speaker 1: to catch the b flow? You know, they just want
Speaker 1: to play at cool surveillance gadgets away from their families
Speaker 1: on there.
Speaker 7: If I may, I'd like to quote hit major motion
Speaker 7: picture Batman The Dark Knight. Yes, please do which is
Speaker 7: you know, I'm like a dog chasing a car. If
Speaker 7: it caught it, I wouldn't know what to do with it.
Speaker 7: I'm paraphrasing. The point is I win that particular line,
Speaker 7: Thank you very much. I'm very prolific in I have
Speaker 7: a great memory for quotes. The point is, I you know,
Speaker 7: it's some of them just want to watch the world burn.
Speaker 7: That one doesn't connect at all. But I just wanted
Speaker 7: to prove I know a quote. The point is, I
Speaker 7: just am very curious to see how this story ends.
Speaker 7: And if he does catch it, it's like then what
Speaker 7: Like It's like, what's the next thing?
Speaker 1: I got you? So, in an interview ed chalked it
Speaker 1: up to COVID right. He said it was twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and there was nothing better to do than lying the
Speaker 1: cold trailer and wait for a cow, which, to be honest,
Speaker 1: fair enough Buddy. So this carried on throughout winter. Okay,
Speaker 1: Buddy cut a path in the snow into the corral
Speaker 1: where he knew that there was always food waiting. Okay,
Speaker 1: But Eda and Nate could never keep him inside the
Speaker 1: corral or coax him into the trailer. The bfalow just
Speaker 1: refused to get caught until one day in spring of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Buddy didn't show up for his daily feeding.
Speaker 1: He was gone, gone gone. But by then the whole
Speaker 1: toown knew that Ed was the man on the hunt
Speaker 1: for Buddy. So soon the telephone was ringing down at
Speaker 1: the police station. It was a different local farmer calling
Speaker 1: in to As it turned out, after two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty days of freedom, plus a bayla hay and ten
Speaker 1: pounds of grain every single day through the winter months,
Speaker 1: Ed discovered that he no longer had to bring Buddy in.
Speaker 1: After a whole winter playing catch me if you can
Speaker 1: with Captain Ed, Buddy was found where he really wanted
Speaker 1: to be, and it wasn't in the makeshift corral with
Speaker 1: a chili cattle trailer and the weird dude lying in it.
Speaker 1: In fact, Buddy had caught the scent of another local
Speaker 1: cattle farm and it brought him wandering over. This time
Speaker 1: he spotted a cluster of female cows. He jumped the
Speaker 1: fence into the pen, trapping himself with the ladies inside. Ladies,
Speaker 1: I know I've been out in the wild for far
Speaker 1: too long, but I hear this is the lady cow.
Speaker 1: Pis okay? Sorry. The local farmer marched them inside, locked
Speaker 1: them up, called Captain Net to let him know that
Speaker 1: the fugitive had finally given up the game. Maybe all
Speaker 1: those nasty reports about him being aggressive were a bit
Speaker 1: off the mark. It seems like Buddy, what he really was,
Speaker 1: was lonely. It was Buddy himself who decided that his
Speaker 1: rampage to the woods of the Connecticut Wilderness was over.
Speaker 1: So Buddy he found his people. So once Buddy was caught,
Speaker 1: the money from the GoFundMe paid for the vet to
Speaker 1: check him out, and then they shipped him down south.
Speaker 1: One of the officers said that they raised enough money
Speaker 1: in a single day to pay the vet plus the transportation,
Speaker 1: and we're paying Nate for all the food that he
Speaker 1: brought during winter. Buddy was taken in by Critter Creek
Speaker 1: Farm Animal Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida. They required a short
Speaker 1: quarantine adjustment period where Buddy got used to the climate
Speaker 1: so they could also make sure that he wouldn't bring
Speaker 1: any diseases to the other animals. Now are you hearing me?
Speaker 1: They tried to luck Buddy up in a solitary pen,
Speaker 1: but it failed. Buddy escaped twice. They should have pretty
Speaker 1: much known better by this point. Don't you think like
Speaker 1: Buddy does not like being locked up?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 3: No, He's made it quite clear he's been evading. He's
Speaker 3: been invading all capture for a really long time. Like
Speaker 3: you gotta gotta keep him in a barn or I
Speaker 3: don't even.
Speaker 1: Know what, but you just gotta keep the cow piss flowing,
Speaker 1: that's all you gotta do. So eventually he once he
Speaker 1: was let out into the main pasture to mingle with
Speaker 1: the other cows and even a bison named Cinnamon, Buddy
Speaker 1: calmed down. Finally, Buddy was lonely no more.
Speaker 6: Or no mo.
Speaker 1: In April twenty twenty one, Captain Ed drove down to
Speaker 1: visit Buddy at the sanctuary in Florida. Apparently he tried
Speaker 1: to feed the beefalo bananas, but Buddy kept his distance.
Speaker 1: It's a little sad almost watching captain Ed try to
Speaker 1: entice Buddy over our best beef of of boy just
Speaker 1: will not be moved no matter what captain Ed offers him.
Speaker 1: I guess in some ways, the real chase goes on,
Speaker 1: and that's our story. Lauren, what do you think?
Speaker 3: This is amazing?
Speaker 4: I think that this was incredible. I loved the misdirect.
Speaker 4: I loved all the details. I loved the fact that
Speaker 4: early on in the story, I was going what crime
Speaker 4: did this convict commit? Like?
Speaker 3: How dangerous of a convict is? I was taking notes,
Speaker 3: I was doing what I do during my normal show.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm just glad that we have a really
Speaker 1: fun escape story for once with a happy ending and everything,
Speaker 1: because this show it doesn't really get a lot of those.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, in solidarity with Buddy and the
Speaker 1: entire Beefalo community, we're actually going to make a donation
Speaker 1: to the Critter Creek Farm on behalf of Captain Ed.
Speaker 1: So it's a real win win here.
Speaker 3: Oh that's so kind.
Speaker 1: Wait to be honest, it's a cool. It's cool as
Speaker 1: any abby man like I learned how to play chess.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, one hundred pre chase scout. Some
Speaker 1: people played chess. Where can listeners find your show, Lauren?
Speaker 4: You can find us anywhere. The podcasts are available, True
Speaker 4: Crime and Cocktails. You can find us on all the socials. Also,
Speaker 4: if you look for that name.
Speaker 1: To really go out with a bang, I'm gonna ask
Speaker 1: Ben to play some of that sexy seventies music he
Speaker 1: was playing in Yeah. I want to ask you, Lauren,
Speaker 1: to sing with me, yeah and say goodbye.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, be fellow. Can you feel the moomomum you go into?
Speaker 3: Run way.
Speaker 1: Is a coral?
Speaker 6: Coral gonna eat a large bell of Hey, Lauren, thank
Speaker 6: you so much, Oh my god, this was too fun, truly.
Speaker 1: Goodbye everybody. You see you next week. Radies Escapes is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio and Film Nation Entertainment and association
Speaker 1: with Gilded Audio. Our executive producers from Me are Turo Castro,
Speaker 1: Alyssa Martino and Milan Papelka from Film Nation Entertainment, Andrew
Speaker 1: Chugg and Witning Donaldson from Gilded Audio, and Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio. The show is produced and edited by Carl
Speaker 1: Nellis and Ben Chugg, who are also, respectively, our research
Speaker 1: overlord and music Overlord. Our associate producer is Tory Smith,
Speaker 1: who's our other overlord. Nick Dooley is our technical director.
Speaker 1: Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson. Special thanks to Alison Cohen,
Speaker 1: Dan Welsh, Ben Riizek, Sarah Joyner, Nicki Stein, Olivia Canny
Speaker 1: and Kelsey Albright. Hey, thank you so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and if you're enjoying the show, please drop a rating
Speaker 1: or review. My mom will call you each personally and
Speaker 1: thank you, and we'll see you all next week