Ewe Won’t Believe It: Sheep Family Rescued from Rooftop

What are the odds of two sheep-on-a-roof stories in one year? Apparently 5.2%

A firefighter in Penrith, England, assists in the rescue of a sheep and three lambs found stranded on a rooftop. Again. — A woolly family on the lam scaled a roof in England, baffling firefighters and proving once again: when sheep make a break for it, they aim high.
— Image courtesy of Perth Fire Station

Without the global reach of the internet, answering the following question would likely be uncalculable: What are the chances of two stories about sheep on a roof being published in under a year?

With Artificial intelligence, we’ve been able to figure it out:
P(≥2 events)=1−e−λ(1+λ)≈1−e−0.365(1+0.365)≈0.0524

The answer: There’s about a 5.2% chance of seeing two such stories within one year (thanks, ChatGPT).

Thankfully, you’re still more likely to see two “sheep on a roof” stories than being struck by lightning (those odds are roughly 0.0067%).

On Monday, the BBC reported that a sheep and three lambs were rescued from a house roof after escaping from a field and — wait for it — going on the lam to avoid capture by police in the town of Penrith, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere in northern England.

Homeowner Shocked to Discover Flock of Sheep on Roof ... (The related story first ran Aug. 22, 2024)

Map of Northern England.

Penrith Fire Station manager Darren Wright said he and his crew were "baffled" after arriving at a two-story property in town, about 116 miles south of Glasgow, Scotland, just before noon, where they encountered the animals perched on the roof.

With the assistance of a local farmer, ladders and reaching poles, they managed to bring them down to safety and return them to terra firma, where animals and anyone not slinging shingles rightfully belong.

Wright said the escaped “family” had climbed onto a section of roof at the back of the house, which was just 2 feet off the ground, "to get away from police," he noted, who had been called to help round them up.

"We are called to a lot of animal rescues, but sheep on a roof was a first," he told BBC Radio Cumbria. (He hasn’t read back issues of Roofing Contractor’s Odd News section, clearly.)

Four-Leaf Clover | Adobe Stock "We couldn't fathom out why there would be sheep in that area in the first place and how they even got on the roof — there was a lot of confusion."

Wright said the animals had escaped from a nearby pasture, and while this was a first for the fireman, RC readers can take pride in being roughly 5% of the approximately 8 billion people who have now seen this story and not been shocked.

Now, play the Lotto!

KEYWORDS: Odd News

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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).

Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.

Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.