Goats sneak into restricted area

NEW YORK, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- New York officials said 13 goats grazing on National Park Service land shimmied under a fence and into a restricted area near the base of the Verrazano Bridge.

Transit and parks officials said the goats, which were employed as an eco-friendly way to control vegetation growth at Fort Wadsworth, shimmied under the chain-link fence and remained unnoticed in the restricted area until they were seen by a Bridge and Tunnel officer in a guard booth, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

"The goats penetrated an outer chain-link fence that is not part of the bridge's security perimeter; there was no security breach nor system failure," the Bridge and Tunnel Division said in a statement. "Our employees did a great job corralling the goats."

Transit officials said the goats likely would have set off security alarms if they had tried to breach the perimeter's second line of defense, a thick metal fence topped with razor wire.

"The goats were taken into custody and turned over to the Army once it was determined not to be illegal aliens or agents of terror," a source told the Daily News.