|
Shelby
woman's posse tracks rustlers via a well-wired trail
continued
In August, when
Stacy Oney's quarterhorse was stolen in
Missouri
, she passed out fliers with a basic description of the
animal.
Then she contacted an
Oklahoma
woman who posted the flier on a stolen horse Web site.
Soon afterward, she got
a call from Metcalfe, advising changes in the flier and
places to put them.
On Sept. 6, Oney heard
from a friend who'd been passing out fliers at a major
horse show in
Tulsa
and handed one to a woman who recognized Oney's horse.
This led to the recovery
of her horse on a farm about 400 miles from her Archie,
Mo.
, home. Police charged a suspect in the case.
The big red sorrel had
been dyed a dark chestnut, the mane and tail colored black
and the faced bleached white, Oney said.
Bleach had also been
splattered on the horse's rear in what Oney said was an
apparent attempt to cover up the brand registered with the
state of
Missouri
. Experts say rustlers often try to change the color of a
distinguishing mark such as the blaze, or star, on a
horse's face.
"He looked
pitiful," said Oney, who has since added her name to
the Net Posse list. "I almost cried. The first thing
I did was jump on his back and ride him around."
Finding
Fancy
Back in
Wilkes
County
, Louise Mathis kept distributing fliers while reviewing
the theft in her mind, wondering if she'd overlooked any
details.
She figured rustlers
tried to load Fancy into a trailer, and the animal put up
a fight when her young colt cried out in a nearby pasture.
Hoof prints led down the
country road, and Mathis tracked them for seven miles
before the trail ended. She assumed someone had ridden the
horse to calm it.
She couldn't believe
what happened on the morning of Feb. 15, 10 days after the
theft. A neighbor called about spotting a horse that
looked like Fancy.
Mathis checked it out --
and found Fancy standing in the pasture. The horse looked
up, whinnied and trotted to her.
Fancy was scratched,
wearing new horse shoes and a strange halter, but in good
shape.
"I was so happy, I
was crying," Mathis said. "I think things got
too hot and whoever took her brought her back. It wouldn't
have happened without NetPosse. If you don't do your own
legwork, you won't get your horse back."
Echoes
Metcalfe: "The more you pull in, the more it tightens
the rope on the thieves."
Charlotte
Observer News,
March 18, 2002
Copyrighted
Material
3
Front
Cover | Table
of Contents | About
the Author |
Back
Cover |
Excerpts - Chapter
1 | Chapter
1 pg-13 | Chapter
4 | In
the News
| Purchase
Book
|
