Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Josiah Tegg experiences growing up on a Florida farm translated well to his career in law enforcement.
Tegg, 27, of De Soto typically is assigned to patrol an area in southern Jefferson County from Hwy. A south to Hwy. 110 and from Hwy. 21 to Hwy. 61-67.
He said he has had to deal with numerous animals since joining the Sheriff’s Office in July 2022.
Josiah Tegg
“Since there are a lot of farmhouses around, it is not uncommon to have a cow, horse or goat in the roadway,” said Tegg, who grew up in Osteen, Fla., about 30 minutes north of Orlando. “For the most part, you just try to coax them into the grass to get them away from traffic.”
At the start of May, he began carrying a rope while on duty because of his livestock encounters.
Tegg said on May 3, he was called to the area around Hwy. 110 and Zufall Lane just north of De Soto because a loose cow was spotted. In those kinds of cases, he typically shakes a bucket with some rocks in it because the animals often think the noise is feed and follows him to where they need to go.
“The owner of the cow saw me waving the bucket and said, ‘That is not going to do too much; the cow is blind,” Tegg said. “They were able to get the cow back to their yard, but the next day, the cow got out again. I thought, all right, I am by Lowe’s. I can get a rope and pull the cow off the road because it is used to being led by a rope. I bought the rope, but by the time I got there, the owner had the cow off the road.
“I tied a lasso on the end of the rope. I thought, if it happens again, I will be ready for it next time.”
Tegg didn’t have to wait long to use his lasso.
On May 5, he got a call from dispatch about a bull in the area around Hwy. 110 and McMillen Road, just north of Zufall Lane, and he found the miniature bull near a fence spooking horses on the other side.
“The bull saw me and trotted to the back corner of the pasture,” he said. “I tossed my rope over its horns and led the bull to the front of the yard.”
Tegg said he didn’t expect to have so many encounters with animals as a deputy, but he enjoys it.
“Working down south, you know you have farm pastures and there is a chance, but I never would have thought I would rope cattle on the job,” he said. “It is something I love about the job. I go to work and I don’t know what I am going to do that day. Every day is a new adventure.”
Becoming a deputy
Tegg said before he started his law enforcement career, he was an asset protection manager at Walmart, and while he was at a Lake St. Louis store, he was talking to Lake St. Louis Police officers who told him the department would pay his tuition for the Police Academy if he wanted to become an officer.
Tegg said he took the department up on the offer, but when he graduated, the Lake St. Louis Police didn’t hire him because they were looking for someone with experience.
That led Tegg to interview with the Sheriff’s Office.
“(The Sheriff’s Office) said they couldn’t put me on the road without experience, but you can build experience in the jail,” he said. “As long as you prove yourself there, we will allow you to go to the road.”
Tegg said he started working in the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro in October 2021, working nearly every role there until finishing as a booking officer.
“I learned a lot,” he said. “I learned about how to deal with different people and build a rapport with them. I have seen some of the people who were in the jail while on the road. I always tried to treat them with the utmost respect in the jail, and now when they see me, they treat me with the utmost respect.”
Farm life
Tegg said his family had 10 head of cattle, chickens and five to seven pigs on their Florida farm.
“I have always enjoyed being around animals,” he said. “I love being in rural areas. I will take rural areas over urban areas any day of the week.”
Tegg said he learned different ways to get cattle to move while growing up, adding that he learned that livestock decide when it is time to move.
“If a cow doesn’t want to move, there is nothing I can do to move the cow,” he said. “You have to convince them to move where you want and give them a treat at the end.”
Tegg said it can be dangerous to work with livestock.
“The animals are hundreds of pounds,” he said. “If it decided to buck, it could be dangerous. As long as you are calm, for the most part, they will not take you as a threat and try to buck at you.”
Tegg also said it is dangerous when horses, cows and bulls get on the road.
“It is basically like hitting a brick wall, and it could have serious effects for the driver,” he said. “Also, a lot of these animals are worth $2,000, $3,000 or $4,000. If that cow, horse or miniature bull is hit, the owner is out quite a bit of money.”