Watch: Fugitive ‘chased’ by cows across Devon field into arms of police

This is the hilarious moment a herd of cows “chase” a wanted fugitive out of their field and into the open arms of the law.

Night-vision footage from a police helicopter shows the wanted suspect being tailed through a Devon field by the inquisitive group of farmyard animals.

The herd makes it easy for the man to be spotted trudging across the meadow on thermal imagery cameras and he was quickly met by pursuing officers.

The Police NPAS chopper crew told their colleagues on the ground: “He’s actually being chased by some cows at the moment. The unit at the track waving at me, yeh, if you walk up that track I’ll tell you when you are near him.”

After assisting in the arrest the NPAS crew tell the officers on foot to “thank the cows”.

“Watch the moment a man on the run from @DC_Police was herded up by a group of cows in Devon and ‘mooved’ out of their field into the arms of waiting police officers,” they wrote on Twitter.

“However, we did have to remind the cows not to take the law into their own hoofs.”

The footage sparked a plethora of cop humour puns on Twitter, with officers adding: “It was a high steaks incident – he was told to stop running, but it clearly went in one ear and out the udder.”

One follower commented: “Trying to escape?? How dairy….”

Another added: “We need more cows on the beat, they get the job done.”

One user deliberately mangled Humphery Bogart’s iconic line in Casablanca, tweeting: “Of all the fields in all the countrysides in all the world he walks into theirs.”

It is unclear what crime the man is suspected of committing.