OKEECHOBEE — Last week, a local dairy was the victim of retail theft when an intoxicated employee reportedly released 40 cows from the dairy chutes before they could be properly milked. Pedro Jimenez Lopez, 32, was arrested Dec. 9 and charged with disorderly conduct and retail theft after he reportedly went to the dairy while intoxicated and attempted to fight with fellow employees.

Pedro Jimenez Lopez

After he was told to go home, Lopez allegedly operated machinery and released the cows from the chutes. For health reasons, there is an inflexible rotation of animals to be milked, and once the cows were released, they could not be returned to the chutes. The lost profit from the milk is estimated to be about $650. There is also a concern that the cows that were not milked could have damage to their internal milk production system, due to not being milked in a timely fashion.

Lopez’s bond was set at $1,000.