New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is thanking what he’s calling the police department’s “cowboy officer” for wrangling two ponies who got loose amid a winter snow storm that’s pounding the Northeast.

Two ponies broke free from their stables and were roaming the streets of Staten Island in the snow Tuesday when an off-duty police officer noticed them.

NYPD chief of patrol Terence Monahan says the officer had straps used in towing cars, and he wrangled the horses, tied them to a lamppost and called for backup. A police radio car arrived and the ponies were transported safely back to the stables.

Elsewhere in New York, two new homes under construction collapsed near the waterfront in Far Rockaway in New York City. Officials say no injuries were reported.

(AP)