Tod Mishler loves to ride horses. He also likes to raise awareness about hunger.
So maybe that’s why he skipped a toll booth and went straight across a New York-area bridge Monday — on a horse.
Mishler — or Doc, as he’s called — literally stopped traffic when he moseyed over the Outerbridge Crossing from New Jersey into Staten Island, riding one horse and leading another.
His stunt caused traffic on the bridge to back up, as rubberneckers slowed to process the unusual sight of a cowboy on a horse in the nation’s biggest city. Another problem? You’re really not supposed to have horses on bridges.
The Port Authority police stopped him, cited him for impeding traffic and trespassing, and sent him on his way.
“You haven’t had horses around here in a long time so they didn’t know what to do,” Mishler, 80, told CNN affiliate WABC. Mishler said officers told him to “ride on, cowboy.”
But he said he was doing it for a good cause.
Mishler, who doesn’t own a car and whose driver’s license expired years ago, said he has ridden horses across the country to raise awareness about childhood hunger.
And did he ever get around to paying that bridge toll? Nope, he said. No one ever asked him to pay it.