|
Shelby
woman's posse tracks rustlers via a well-wired trail
continued
N.C. officials don't
track the number of stolen horses. Experts estimate 55,000
a year are taken nationwide, a tiny percentage of the
nearly 7 million horses in the United States. NetPosse is
one of at least a dozen (and counting) similar stolen
horse Web sites across the nation. Another one that's
gotten results in
North Carolina
is the N.C. Horse Council's "Stolen Horse Information
Network," which Metcalfe is also involved in. Eight
horses have been reported to SHIN since it began last
year.
Samantha Hartford,
chairwoman of the N.C. Horse Council's Equine Welfare
Committee, said such thefts aren't a high priority for law
enforcement and are usually looked at as property thefts.
"To horse people,
though, it's a kidnapping," she said. "We love
our horses. Horse people are a little crazy."
As a young "horse
person" growing up in Burlington, Metcalfe didn't have
a place to keep the animals and rented them on
weekends. In 1987, she married and moved from
Pinehurst to a farm outside Shelby where her husband,
Harold, bought her a horse.
Now, the 47-year-old
Metcalfe helps people find stolen animals through a
network in North America and
Europe
when she isn't selling insurance.
"It felt
wonderful," she said. "I had something I'd
always wanted."
After her
Idaho
disappeared, she faxed fliers to traders and auctioneers
around the region. She went to sales, searching among
hundreds of animals.
Then she turned to the
Internet, gathering e-mail addresses off horse-related Web
sites and sending messages about the theft. Gradually, she
built a network willing to hunt for stolen horses.
A tipster later called
about spotting
Idaho
at shows in
Tennessee
. She and her husband later recovered the animal.
Cleveland
County
authorities charged a
Valdese man with larceny in the case.
Detective Gary Gold with
the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office said Metcalfe's
tenacity helped break the case.
"She's got a heck
of a network," he said. "The best thing to do
around here is not steal a horse because they're going to
run you down."
Finding
Idaho
gave Metcalfe a mission. Other victims called for advice,
and sometimes she even contacted them when she spotted
theft notices on the Web.
She learned the art of
making fliers that meticulously describe missing horses.
Her service is free, and allows her "to do things for
people I wasn't able to do for myself for so long after my
horse was stolen," Metcalfe said.
Hunting
for J.B.
continued
to page 3
Copyrighted
Material
2
Front
Cover | Table
of Contents | About
the Author |
Back
Cover |
Excerpts - Chapter
1 | Chapter
1 pg-13 | Chapter
4 | In
the News
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