Police Probe Suspicious Package Left at Historic Courthouse, Learn Box Has Bovine Contents

Corrected: Police in Decatur, Ga., were summoned Thursday to a historic courthouse at Decatur Square in an incident that turned out to be a cattle call.

Police were called to investigate a suspicious package wrapped in duct tape left on the courthouse grounds, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. A bomb-sniffing dog and X-rays didn’t detect explosives, so authorities opened the box.

The package contained a cattle tongue, according to Deputy Police Chief Keith Lee. “All is well," Lee told the Journal-Constitution, "except for the poor cow who lost his tongue.”

It’s not the first cow tongue found outside a courthouse. Tampa police discovered a cow tongue studded with about 100 nails in a box outside a courthouse this summer. Police said it was a message to someone to “keep your mouth shut,” WPTV.com reported at the time.

Updated at 10:13 a.m. to correct a reference to a bomb-sniffing dog.