Feed going missing WWYD

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buzyizzy

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I moved into my new yard on 9th April and kept my feed, which is Thunderbrooks Chaff, in a bin in the corner and didn't have any go missing. Then last week, when YO was away at Badminton, my feed started to go down rapidly. I spoke to her deputy and we moved my bin to outside my stables with my mucking out stuff. For a few days it seemed ok, but this week it's been ridiculous. There is a note on my bin to the effect that the food belongs to my two horses and not to use it, but whoever it is, has taken no notice. Last night I went to feed mine (they have various supplements with it) and there was barely enough for one of them :(
I have to buy another bag today, which I shouldn't have needed for at least another week. I have taken pictures of how I have left my bin contents, and when I go back to it, everything is moved, so I definitely am not imagining it. Thankfully, it would appear there are now places at the yard with the track system that I was hoping to move to in March before the snow came and put everything back, and it's not even the money, it's the pure and unadulterated cheek!!
One livery, who is above suspicion because he is sure he is losing stuff too and my gut tells me he is being honest, has offered me his wildlife camera to install near my bin. He's going to use it for his stuff first as he has had bedding and supplements go missing, and then we shall see if it is the same person nicking my feed. We haven't told the YO about the camera which I feel a bit uncomfortable about, but I don't know what else she can do. I am sure others have experienced this, but it's the first time for me. What did you do?
 
Pop some permenant ink on the handles and then see who is wandering around with black hands!

Followed by a mousetrap in the bin.
 
buzyizzy said:
I moved into my new yard on 9th April and kept my feed, which is Thunderbrooks Chaff, in a bin in the corner and didn't have any go missing. Then last week, when YO was away at Badminton, my feed started to go down rapidly. I spoke to her deputy and we moved my bin to outside my stables with my mucking out stuff. For a few days it seemed ok, but this week it's been ridiculous. There is a note on my bin to the effect that the food belongs to my two horses and not to use it, but whoever it is, has taken no notice. Last night I went to feed mine (they have various supplements with it) and there was barely enough for one of them :(
I have to buy another bag today, which I shouldn't have needed for at least another week. I have taken pictures of how I have left my bin contents, and when I go back to it, everything is moved, so I definitely am not imagining it. Thankfully, it would appear there are now places at the yard with the track system that I was hoping to move to in March before the snow came and put everything back, and it's not even the money, it's the pure and unadulterated cheek!!
One livery, who is above suspicion because he is sure he is losing stuff too and my gut tells me he is being honest, has offered me his wildlife camera to install near my bin. He's going to use it for his stuff first as he has had bedding and supplements go missing, and then we shall see if it is the same person nicking my feed. We haven't told the YO about the camera which I feel a bit uncomfortable about, but I don't know what else she can do. I am sure others have experienced this, but it's the first time for me. What did you do?
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Happened once on my yard. I advised livery to buy some anti thief spray. Then I kicked the offender off the yard when we identified her by her purple fingers. She had all manner of excuses, but there was no sob story and real need to steal. Just laziness (couldn't be bothered to go to shop) and lying. Not the kind of people I want near me!
 
Id definitely have no problems using a camera. And locking the bin is definitely the route I'd go down unless you want to catch the person and ask for money back towards the missing feed.

Aside from that, I'm just musing outloud but if there anything horse safe that you can add to the feed that would make a horses droppings change colour? I'm trying to think of ways you could find out which horse it was being fed too and therefore who was taking it.
 
I caught someone doing this at my yard, it was a pro rider who was coming in to school one of my horses. I thought I was imagining it at first because it seemed so ridiculous, so I hid my car one day and walked back up the track to see who was taking it (I also had a couple of liveries at the time). As I walked up the field I saw her climbing through the fence at the back of my yard with a bucket full to the brim of my feed! Like you say, its not the money, its the inconvenience of getting home from work when the shops are closed and not having enough feed for your horses. Hope you catch them soon.
 
ihatework said:
Pop some permenant ink on the handles and then see who is wandering around with black hands!

Followed by a mousetrap in the bin.
Click to expand...

I like this idea.
I would go for the trailcam, you are only using it to identify, not to prosecute. Bloody thieving gits.
 
Camera is good
Talk to YO as if that was going on around my property I would want to know
Place an ad on freecycle for a small chest freezer to put your feed/supplements in and padlock it for now
I can't abide thieves, scum of the earth
 
def install camera-this needs to be stopped pronto! u can then go to yo with evidence and see if they throw off the thief! keep us posted
 
I'd be livid. It's the inconvenience of having to go to the feed merchant as much as the cost for me as I can only go on a Saturday morning.

It depends if you just want to stop it happening or identify the culprit? Do you have a lorry or trailer you can lock the feed away in? Or get a chain and padlock for your feed bin.

The other thing you could do is get a motion sensor alarm so that an alarm goes off when the feed bin is opened. A nice loud siren that makes everyone look and makes the thief poop their pants could be fun 😂😂
 
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You can buy small battery pir alarms in most DIY shops...Yale do a great one for around the twenty pound mark...it’s the same type as a shed alarm....set it and place in the food bin...when you open the lid you have ten seconds to put your code in otherwise it goes off really loudly! They’re great!
 
I have had this happen sorry to say. I left a note in my feed bin saying I can afford to feed my horses but not yours as well, please stop stealing my horses food. Have to say few other words in there.. but if you didn't go in feed bin you wouldn't be offended!
 
I think you need to identify, rather than just stop. People who steal food will also steal other stuff.
 
I agree with Clodagh, you may be able to lock the feed bin but can you lock everything else? With the YOs permission I would set the camera up and find out who it is so they can remove them.
 
Thank you, so great ideas and lots of support :) I don't have a way of locking my bin, and I think if I used the alarm, my poor horses would also poop their pants as the bin is only a short distance from their stables, and if they happened to be in....
I'm buying a new bag tomorrow morning and going to leave it on full display (unopened) until I go back to the yard in the evening, when I will put some in the bin and the rest I will lock away in my tack locker. I shall measure the distance from the top of the feed to the top of the bin and take a picture of exactly how I leave it complete with bits and bobs on top, then see how it looks on Tuesday. If it is different from Monday evening, I will show YO so she knows she has a thief on the yard and ask her if I can now set up a camera to catch the little ****. When I have the evidence, I shall take that to her and I hope they will be chucked off the yard.
I have had a really good piece of news today tho, as the yard with the track system is now ready for two more horses, so I shall be moving them in a couple of weeks. It's a lovely place, fabulous school, off road hacking around farmland, altho sadly no moorland within reach, and an easier on the fuel with it being just off a main road, so no narrow lanes to navigate round. I don't want to have to go to the expense of a camera especially as I've had one offered, and I'm leaving anyway. Why are people so petty, if she had only asked me in an emergency, I would have willingly given her some feed for a day.
 
I did hear of a lady who was having bother with another livery “borrowing” her fly spray, so one day she used an empty fly spray bottle and filled it with purple spray and water.. the culprit was soon revealed...she had a grey mare with a purple neck!!! I think a hidden camera is how you will find your “borrower” cos they will no doubt say they just needed to “borrow some feed “
 
Let the other livery instal his wild life camera & see what that shows, hopefully it will discover the thief & that should be sorted. I don't advise you to instal the camera yourself because you have only been at the yard for about a month & you don't want to cause 'waves', left the other livery. If however it doesn't show anything go with the other livery & speak to your YO. That will give extra weight to your story as there are 2 of you & then they'll probably be 100% with you & installing the camera will be accepted.

Using indelible ink can work but you have to find the person with the ink * it also only proves someone touched the lid not that they stole feed.
 
Just get a lockable bin. Simple. If its just a simple refuse bin, get a chain and put it around the handles over the top and padlock. If its one with the plastic handles, drill holes through the handle/lid and attach padlocks.
 
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I had a friend that kept getting her feed stolen. She put a really rude note in the bin. Unbelievably she got a phonecall from the yard owner to say that the thief's mother had rung to complain about the rudeness of the note - her beloved daughter (who was 19) had only been borrowing the feed (for two weeks!) and had meant to replace it. The thief had stolen from others, and was told to leave.
 
This is such a common problem! I had two horses at a small private yard and somebody was helping themselves to my feed. Left a note inside the bin asking them to please not take it. Came back the next day to a note from the thief telling me off for a) leaving a note (????) and b) not taking water to the field (when in fact I was taking water to the field every morning first thing unfortunately I assume the horses drank it all so quickly this obnoxious person thought I wasn't). It was ridiculous that they thought they were perfectly justified in stealing my feed (never mind being incorrect in their assumption). Sadly in those days there were no wildlife cams on the market - but I did padlock the feed bins and then leave the yard.
 
This happened to me years ago - the highlight was when they used the last of my soaked sugar beet ... did they think I would somehow not notice it had disappeared?

I reported it to the YM and left a laminated note in my feed bin which read: "Dear thieving b*****d, the yard manager has been informed that my feed is going missing and the staff are watching my bins, so kindly ******* off and buy your own!" It stopped after that ... :p
 
I think these people mustn't see what they're doing as stealing. They wouldn't be brazen enough to complain about the notes if they thought they were doing wrong:rolleyes3:
 
I put a note in my bin 'please stop taking my food' and next day found a note 'we don't feed our horses rabbit food'. (It was very early days for mixes).


Errr, so why were you in my bin to see my note to reply to it, then?

I padlocked it after that.
 
I think it is a symptom of some people believing that they really are the most important being in the world and that anything they want, is therefore theirs. A colleague recently told me a story of a young man who was arrested for robbery, his reason for hittin the person when they declined to hand over the money?" "They wouldn't give me MY money", the money of course belonged to the person he robbed! :eek:
 
Ooooooo, this would make me so darn mad. Having to lock feed bins up is really saddening. I am happy that I've never had this problem so far. Would be tempted to buy a big enough feed bin to hide inside and wait for them to open it. :lol: we did have one feed thief on a yard I was on (I was in a different barn so they didn't target mine) and they locked their own feed bins! But stole from other people. Mad.

Either they genuinely believe that what they are doing is not stealing or they just don't care. Or it's not wrong because it's them doing it.
 
I suppose its a bit like renting in a row of terrace houses, you wouldn't leave your belongings hanging around or your front door unlocked even if you really liked your neighbours, I remember going to shows and you just left all your stuff for all the world to see in the lorry, all unlocked and on clear display, everyone kept an eye on each other, never had one thing go missing, I expect the world has changed since then, which is such a shame

I seem to have become a key holder for various people's houses, wouldn't occur to me to go raid their fridge, was brought up to know its just plain wrong to take stuff that doesn't belong to you, no matter what it is

Very strange mindset people who steal stuff must have
 
dibbin said:
This happened to me years ago - the highlight was when they used the last of my soaked sugar beet ... did they think I would somehow not notice it had disappeared?

I reported it to the YM and left a laminated note in my feed bin which read: "Dear thieving b*****d, the yard manager has been informed that my feed is going missing and the staff are watching my bins, so kindly ******* off and buy your own!" It stopped after that ... :p
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Love it!!
 
I left a trap for them this morning and won't be back at yard until tomorrow afternoon, so will see what happens.
 
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