WALDO – A herd of runaway cows “attacked” a car and plodded through a cemetery before being rounded up and led back to their barn Monday night.

About 150 Jersey and Guernsey dairy cows escaped from their pasture at Springdale Farm on the Birches Road shortly before 9 p.m., said Lt. Gary Boynton of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department.

The department was alerted to the problem by a woman who called to report that the cows were “attacking” her car.

Besides milling around in the road, the cows also trampled through the Paul Cemetery next to the farm. Before they could be rounded up, the cows toppled two tombstones and left pies of fertilizer scattered throughout the cemetery.

Boynton said Deputy Scott Jones and several passers-by helped round up the cows.

“Everyone who drove by lent a hand,” Boynton said Tuesday.

Farmer Walter Whitcomb said the cows escaped while he and his family were in Belfast enjoying a lobster dinner.

He speculated that they probably were spooked by a coyote and that once a few broke through the electric fence, the rest of the herd followed. Whitcomb said he intended to repair the damage to the cemetery.

“No cows hurt, no people hurt, thank goodness,” Whitcomb said. “They were out walking where they shouldn’t have been and went through several fences to get there.”

When informed that the police report mentioned the cows had attacked a car, Whitcomb replied that “they’re all pretty friendly. They will come right up to you and lap your face. And if you’re not used to that, it could be pretty scary.”

Once the herd was rounded up Boynton informed the county dispatcher that “all the little doggies have gone home.”