A ranch just on the outskirts had 50 black angus herded by men on horses up a creek, loaded on a truck and taken. Maybe the construction sight where the cattle were loaded had cameras. BTW, how many horse trailers are needed, that is what was supposedly used? The post said cows, not steers and it was the ranchers DIL who posted.
this was posted on Nextdoor, and facebook, I can't get it to copy

Maybe ruslters and car thieves (we have a lot around here) need to be hanged. Police were late getting there, brand inspectors are notified according to the postings.

Low life b astards need to be shot!!

50 cows would take 5 average size goosenecks......sounds more like a semi was used

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often,...maybe not 50 at a time. But people will risk their life to steal copper wire these days. Any smart thief would be able to figure out that a steer is a lot less trouble.

My friend lost a dozen cows-calves last year.

I'm surprised it ever happens when you think of what a pain-the-azz it would be to catch, move, hide, and take care of 50 head of cattle would be at least in the cattle country I'm familiar with. To make it all work, you'd think it might have to be an inside job.

Having the means to transport, the help in doing so, plus a buyer for stolen livestock, makes me wonder why anybody would want to mess with it.

I can see a single or two animal getting shot for meat or some thrill-killing going on, but I'd think being a cattle rustler would make most think drug trafficking, making meth, or easily hidden and sold stolen goods would be far easier.

Just heard about a couple they caught in Oklahoma. 17 head of cattle were stolen in southern Kansas and taken directly to a sale barn in Oklahoma. Luckily, one of the guys at the barn recognized the brand and alerted authorities. Younger couple so I'm guessing drugs were the driver behind it.

G23

Whole lot easier ways to make money, criminal style.

With a couple good horses, a good dog, portable panels and a place to back a semi up against a dirt bank, that would not be a tough job at all. Especially if the herd was used to being trucked to pasture. Hell they would walk right in. Probably in and out in a half hour.

It would be a bunch harder to do it with pick up and goose neck trailers with all the switching of trailers.

The hard part is disposing of branded cattle. I can not even have a branded steer butchered without showing a bill of sale and brand inspection. But then I am honest.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/video/category/top-story/3994664-cattle-rustler-steals-dozens-of-cows/

What's the penalty for cattle rustling these days?

get a rope......

I agree. Don't think the average rustler would have easy access to a semi to haul 50 head. A cow or two for meat or sell it for meth money maybe. Unless this particular thief makes a living rustling...........

I'm not an FBI investigator but I bet there is a 99% chance the 'rustler' already has cows.


That or they will be caught by tomorrow.




Pretty sure this wasn't West Virginia mine rat meth heads.

Where the cattle auction at? They have to dumped them quickly or feed and water them.

I gotta go with Sam on this, it said cows. I doubt seriously if they'll try and move them through a sale barn, my money says they are folded into some one or some ones existing herd. Were they bred? If so it'll be the calves that are sold.

Fugkin militant vegans.

Sunsabitches.

Was a time before I was born that the cattlemen around here were packing pistols and long guns on their saddle horses.


Dad was one of them.


Gawtdamn counterfeit sunsabitches.

There used to be a lot of if caught, then they disappeared. Needs to be more of that today. Can get mighty lonesome out on the range

I wouldn't put much stock in them being 'cows'. Reporters these days don't know a cat from a dog.

These two men knew how to handle horse and cattle rustlers.



Too bad it's not done the same way today.

L.W.

been a lot more closer to 2018 that knew how to handle the problem, and I have no issue with it

I’d be interested in following those cows through the chain to the end user.

They were bred heifers. A couple years ago there were 40 or so taken from the same general area, no idea if anyone was caught. I hope some traffic camera caught a cattle truck passing to give a clue.

Can you insure herds? $75000 or 80000 according to reports. We have been out there, it is pleasant to see the range land, what is left of it.

A few years ago in a valley just outside Missoula there was a spate of rustling. Turned out to be a big rancher's boy. So much for the cowboy way....

Up in my favorite recreation/hunting ground is an old limber pine with a very stout branch hanging at the horizontal about twelve feet off the ground. It has a USFS sign bolted to the trunk which reads "Hangman Tree".

My uncle ran cattle in the area, starting with his Dad at about age twelve in the early thirties. He said the rope was still hanging from the tree when he was a kid.

The story was that local ranchers found a "Chinaman" sitting over a fire near that spot Feasting on a freshly killed beef.

But that was 100 years ago, and Idaho was hardly what one would call "civilized" in those days.

This was referenced above, Kansas/Oklahoma. Rustled in southeast Kansas. Sold at OKC salebarn (4 hours away). Salebarn worker recognized the brand and called the rancher.

http://www.parsonssun.com/news/article_0052acaa-fe54-11e8-98fb-9f5d0a636004.html


Oklahoma law officers arrested two rural Labette County residents Tuesday morning at the Oklahoma National Stockyards Co. in Oklahoma City for allegedly possessing 17 cattle stolen from a Southeast Kansas pasture.

Col. Jerry Flowers, the chief special agent for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Agency, said at 9 a.m. Tuesday 17 head of 450-pound cattle showed up at the stockyard in downtown Oklahoma City to be sold that day. An employee noticed the brand on the hips of the cattle as that belonging to a customer from Kansas and contacted the customer. The Kansas cattleman said he had reported the steer stolen that morning to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department so the stockyard employee contacted Flowers’ agency, which investigates agriculture crimes statewide. The agency is commonly referred to as the Oklahoma cattle cops, Flowers said.

The commission company that was going to sell the cattle that day let the cattle go to auction and the stockyard was going to buy them, Flowers said.

Flowers said stockyard staff didn’t know who dropped the cattle off so they had to sell the cattle so the people who brought them would claim their check for the sale at the billing office.

Anthony F. Whittley, 27, 23085 Wallace Road, and Jasmine A. Boone, 27, also of rural Parsons, showed up to claim the check and were intercepted by Flowers and his agents. Once the agents determined the cattle were stolen, they arrested Whittley and Boone, Flowers said. Agents also notified Kendall Lothman, the Kansas livestock investigator with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Lothman traveled to Oklahoma City to sit in on interviews with Whittley and Boone about that theft and other cases. The cattle brought to Oklahoma City were valued in excess of $10,000, Flowers said.

Agents are investigating to see if Whittley and Boone had roles in other cattle thefts in eastern Oklahoma and Kansas, Flowers said.

The investigation is in process, Flowers said.

Whittley and Boone remain in Oklahoma County Jail on bonds totaling $27,000 each. They are held on suspicion of bringing stolen property into the state, concealing stolen property and possession of an offensive weapon (a pistol) while committing a felony.

The stockyard is making arrangements to return the 17 cattle to their owner, Jim Gaither.

The Labette County Sheriff’s Department assisting with the investigation as needed.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the cattle theft.

Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves said his department received a call about the theft of cattle from a pasture in rural Columbus early Tuesday morning.

“I’m excited about the way this case came together, very quickly, thanks to rapid and accurate information sharing along with collaboration between the cattle owner, representatives of the sale barn and all law enforcement involved, including the special livestock investigators in Kansas and Oklahoma,” Sheriff Groves said in a prepared statement.

“At this time our office is seeking charges in Kansas for felony theft and criminal damage to property, but we also anticipate the filing of additional charges with regards to a similar case from late November, where eight cows were stolen north of Columbus,” Groves said.

“Get a rope!”

Or an AR.

lolol

You can buy insurance for massive (death)loss but it is expensive, we got a quote of around $10k/year and I don't know if it covered theft.



Right now good bred heifers are selling for $1800-1850 per head(in MT), so 50 head of average stock, say $1500/hd, would be worth $75k.



Brand the heifers, calve 'em out, sell the calves next fall, wait a few years and sell the cows....


In Montana you don't need a bill of sale to sell cattle so long as they have your 'old' brand on it. You obviously wouldn't want to try selling a bunch of cattle with your fresh brand(and someone else's old brand) and no bill of sale.

these are branded with a heart above a W (snaky) and at least some of them have a freeze brand number too. Naturally the calves will not have a brand if they are dropped on someone elses land.

Heart hangin' runnin' W?


The brand guys would know what to call it.

If they catch them, the penalty won't be steep enough. We have a local guy that used to fraud the banks out of money by getting 4-5 loans on the same cattle trailer, Drive around and show bankers "his" cattle and borrow money against them, stole a whole poultry house full of tractors and hay equipment, drove out into Kansas and leased some land and the guys cattle, sold the cattle never to be seen again... and he only served a few years with all that sh*t on his record. Time after time, and it doesn't matter.

You can have insurance on cattle, My grandpa had 20 some head hit by lightning huddled under a tree when I was a kid. Don't know what coverage ran him, I'm not smart enough to carry it, but I was about to crap myself this week when I had 5 bulls disappear from behind the house. 3 days later I found them alive and well.

Couple years ago we had some sh*tbirds 15-20 minutes north of here running around with a trailer, some portable corral panels, and some good dogs. Park on the back road, cut the fence, and herd the cows straight out of the field down the road and into the trailer. Local sheriff made a plead to them over the radio to stop and the farmers were carrying guns and not asking questions. To my surprise it stopped. Not sure if they were caught or made enough money, but the ending didn't make the paper. I must say, as much as I despise thieves, these guys really had the world by the tail.

And 50 bred heifers. 900-1000 pounds average around here. 1 pot load or maybe 5 20ft cattle trailers. Ball park figures.