Attempted Horse Theft PLEASE READ
A horse owner from Sussex sent in this personal account to a Horsewatch coordinator who kindly sent it to us, to help warn people who wish to sell their horses about certain pitfalls when they advertise them for sale:
"I advertised some of my horses for sale: a mare, her weanling filly and a cob colt. The mare received incredible interest, as I was not asking a lot of money for her. I took a deposit for the mare and the weanling filly from the same lady (from Wales) and subsequently marked the adds on the website as Sold-Deposit Taken. I still received many more calls and decided to take contact numbers just in case the sale fell through.
Then I received a phone call from someone claiming to be the ladys husband. He said he had a fried who would be in my area and who could collect the mare and filly that same day. I was a bit surprised at the short notice but agreed to the arrangement. I gave him my postcode for his sat nav and began to get the mare and foal ready. I was a bit unsure of things so I contacted the lady buyer to ask her if her husband had rung etc. She knew NOTHING about it! To top it off, her husband was sitting next to her! I immediately returned to the yard to find a trailer parked outside and two men (who had climbed over the padlocked gate and entered the mares stable) attempting to take her! On confronting them they kept up the pretence that the husband had sent them as a surprise for his wife but did manage to let it slip that they knew nothing of the foal being purchased as well. When I refused to let them take the mare one of the men produced a wad of cash and offered it for the mare alone. I eventually managed to get them to leave and noted down the following particulars:
The vehicle was a newish Shogun with licence number: S1 SXW the trailer was an old brown Ifor Williams. One male was 55-56, between 30 and 40 years old, balding, rounded features well dressed and quite well spoken. The other male was about 511, in his late 20s, quite over-weight, medium length brown hair and again quite well dressed and reasonably well spoken. I have reported the incident to the police and have subsequently moved the mare to a different yard until she goes. I have also moved all my other horses to a far off and well hidden paddock as I fear if I leave them in the yard then the thieves will try again when no-one is around."
Added on: 25/05/07.
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