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Stolen Horse International, Inc.
PO Box 1341
Shelby, NC 28151
(704) 484-2165
stolenhorse@netposse.com
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"If
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Val Delana
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Ken and Val's theft story...flyers work!
Dazzled
and Delighted in Texas
August
26, 2003
By
Val Delana
Our story begins in September of 2002 with a
scheduled visit to our ranch by two women.
We are a breeder of Tennessee Walking and Spotted Saddle
Horses about 50 miles East of Dallas, TX and Andrea Gentile and
Patricia Dowden called to say they were interested in one of our
fillies, Paint’s Bright Delight.
A visit was arranged for Sunday, September 22.
As the women arrived they were cordially greeted by husband, Ken
and myself and all 50+ of our horses.
The women are impressed with the gentleness and curiosity
of all the horses but are still particularly interested in the
yearling Spotted Saddle Horse filly, Delight.
After spending almost an hour in the pasture with our herd,
Patricia Dowden has also started to express an interest in a
yearling filly, Painted Razzle Dazzle.
Both she and Andrea Gentile continue to get better
acquainted with both fillies and about 20 minutes later Patricia
states that they would like to purchase both.
We agree on a price and then are asked if we can transport
the horses to their barn near Tyler, TX (about 50 miles away) this
same evening. 
By now it is well past 7 PM and by the time we can get to
their barn it will be after dark. I expressed my concern over moving them in the dark and then
turning them into a strange pasture but they assured us the
fillies would stay in stalls in the barn for a day or two.
I also expressed concern that these fillies would even load
into our two-horse trailer, as we had not really spent any trailer
loading time with them since they were weaned.
Patricia became very insistent and even though we got the
fillies into the trailer we could tell that they (the fillies)
were not at ease with the situation and asked them again if we
could wait a day or two. At
that time, Andrea told Ken that Pat is an impulse type of person
and she would probably change her mind if she had a few days to
think about it. Ken
agreed to go ahead and transport the horses.
We arrived at their barn and house, which we later found
they were renting, about 8 PM and unloaded the horses into their
stalls. It was a very
nice barn and everything was well kept so we were feeling a bit
better about the whole thing by the time we left.
That was the last time that we saw either the
two women or the two fillies until Saturday, August 23, 2003. We deposited the check the next morning and within 4 days we
had it back at our bank with an insufficient funds note on it from
their bank. Over the
next 10 months, Ken had numerous phone conversations with these
women with promise after promise to send money.
Of course this never happened but Ken is a man with a big
heart and he thought they really were having difficulty because of
the bad economy.
Finally, convinced that we were never going
to see payment, in July of 2003, we took the check they had
written to the bank in Tyler that the account was in.
We were told that the account had been closed in December
of 2002. We took a drive out to where we had delivered the horses and
found the place empty and no horses anywhere.
We talked to the landlady and she said they had skipped out
on her about 2 months ago and owed her rent.
From there we went to the Bad Check Division at the Smith
County District Attorney’s office.
Here we learned that Andrea Gentile was well known.
At the time that we walked in, she had over $6000 in bad
checks. By the time we left, the tally was $9000.
A felony warrant was issued for her arrest and we were told
that a detective would be working on the case and contacting us.
We heard from him later the same afternoon.
After leaving the D.A.’s office, we visited
the Smith County Sheriff’s office and filed a police complaint.
They also assigned an officer to work the case though we
never did hear from him until after the horses were recovered. We went home to wait but were told that since it has been a
year, not to expect too much.
For the past year I have been watching the
Net Posse postings come across various e-mail groups I am on and I
decided that now was the time for me to get in touch with them.
The group has been great and Debi Metcalf got pictures,
story and contact information up on the Stolen Horse International
website very quickly. I
am always amazed at how wonderful most horse people are and how
much they join together in times of need.
 Through
the Stolen Horse International's NetPosse and other groups that I
am involved in on-line, we got information that these women had
been at the horse sale on I-20 near Canton, TX.
We also were advised to get in touch with the Texas Cattle
Raisers Association. I
put an e-mail out to Larry Gray over at TCRA and he spread the
word to their livestock detectives.
I had a call from one of them within 12 hours of getting in
touch with Larry. This
is another great group of people who are dedicated to tracking
down stolen livestock whether it is horses or cattle. Mike Strong, the TCRA investigator that called me, suggested
that we head over to the sale barn on I-20 and talk to the owners.
It was Friday and there was a sale going on so off we went.
I printed off some flyers before leaving the house and took
them along too. I was
determined to tack them up anyplace I could think of.
When we arrived at the sale, the owner and
his wife were very helpful. They
checked their records and found that they had Andrea Gentile on
file. They even gave me a copy of her driver’s license and I, in
turn, shared it with all the officials involved.
They encouraged me to post my flyer on the bulletin board
right by the door. Ken
and I stayed at the sale a while just to see if the two women
would show up but neither did.
Over the next couple of weeks, we put flyers
up and handed them out to friends who distributed them all around
the area. We were
almost certain by this time that we would not find the fillies but
still we hoped that we could help track down the thieves and
prevent this from happening to someone else.
On August 23, 2003, just about a month after
we started this pursuit of horses and thieves, I was in Houston at
a horse clinic. When
I called home to talk to Ken and see what was happening at our
ranch he said, “I am on my way to Tyler to pick up our
fillies.” I could
hardly believe what I was hearing!!
I would have to wait to hear the rest of the story until I
returned home on Sunday because Ken had to hurry and get to where
the girls were being boarded.
On Sunday, I got the whole story. A gentleman named Jerry Hanson called Ken to say that he had
seen our flyer that was posted at the horse sale barn on I-20 near
Canton. He had been
to a sale near Elkhart, TX a couple of weeks before and the two
filles had come thru the sale ring.
The women had brought them there in a trailer that they
sold at the auction. The
fillies did not bring what they wanted for them so they “no
sale” them and asked Mr. Hanson to transport them back to the
pasture for them. He
did and he remembered the horses and he saw our flyer and he
called. God works
thru us all and we believe this man to be very special.
Mr. Hanson even drove back over to the pasture that he
delivered them to and made sure that the horses were still there
and then called Ken again and told him to come and get them.
On Sunday, when I drove into the ranch, there
were Paint’s Bright Delight and Painted Razzle Dazzle happily
munching grass next to some of their old herd mates.
It was, indeed a joyous site.
We can never express our thanks enough to all
the people who helped with this search and to all the support we
have received. What I
can do is write this account of our ordeal and hope that through
it others will have hope. I
also hope that everyone who reads it will know how essential it is
for the flyers to get made and posted anyplace they might get
seen. These don’t have to be horse places either.
Post them at grocery stores, discount stores, libraries, or
any other place they will let you.
A good neighbor of someone who was involved in a horse
theft might just see it and make the right phone call.
Ken and would hope that all who have lost horses will be
able to find them again. If
we all work together, this could become a reality.
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