Lancashire *WARNING*

milesjess

milesjess

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We recently had a scare last week. Whilst at the yard my friend saw a van pull up near the drive way. On seeing her it drove off at speed, but she believes they might have been checking the yard out. It was a dark green/ black old shape van, with a cream roof. 2 males onboard, driver an older guy. No reg or any other descriptions.

It might be innocent but apparently horses/ tack have been stolen recently in the Lancashire area so just a pre-warning that thieves are lurking!

We are based in West Lancs.

Oh and just to add, it has been reported to the Police.
 
Check if any of the horses have a plait in their manes. It's a mark for the people who come afterwards to steal the horse. It's usually coloured cobs so you can imagine where they will end up.
 
Thanks, we are keeping a close eye on them and taking pre-cautions to prevent anything. Hopefully they'll go back were they came from :(
 
volunteer said:
Check if any of the horses have a plait in their manes. It's a mark for the people who come afterwards to steal the horse. It's usually coloured cobs so you can imagine where they will end up.
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OFFS.. I can understand your worry about the horses, but this "plaiting them up to mark them" is right up there with the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow. Its been discussed to death on this forum, and as far as I can see there has not yet been a documented case of horses being marked in this way for theft. Windplaits happen when horses roll etc and are just "horses" in the field. In this age of technology do you not thing that they might just take a pic on their phones..... rather then catch said horse, have some one hold it or put a headcollar on it and then stand in the middle of a field plaiting away. Not to mention they are in effect painting a sign saying were going to steal this one and this one.

Theft for financial gain is all about minimising your exposure and reducing the risk of being detected and then caught.

This is a wondeful tool for spreading information, but it loses its effectiveness when its swamped with scare stories based on folk lore and fairy tales, people then stop reading the posts and miss information that could have been useful.
 
I seem to think you are rather close to me milesjess. :-/
I know one of my liveries fathers has land on one of the lanes just off kirkham and their outbuildings were broken into a couple of weeks ago, a little tractor etc was taken, they had obviously cased the place as its well hidden but they do recall a van went slowly down the lane the week before when they were on said tractor.
I think its pretty much one of every owners worse nightmares if they have a horss stolen.
I'll keep my eyes open for such a van, its sounds pretty distinctive - but maybe thats part of the ploy? go to case places in a distinctive van.. everyone then is looking for that in the meantime... they go and break in somewhere in a more common type of van ie white transit etc and people dont notice as easily?
Fingers crossed they werent casing your yard out and that nothing happens!
 
volunteer said:
Check if any of the horses have a plait in their manes. It's a mark for the people who come afterwards to steal the horse. It's usually coloured cobs so you can imagine where they will end up.
Click to expand...

Plaits in manes ha ha "" A URBAN MYTH "" No cases associated with stolen horses.
 
WELL down here in bucks there have been cases with plaits in manes and every one has been stolen gypsies do it so they know what to take at night. there is a difference between horses manes getting into a knotted plait and a human plaiting neatly in two girls found there's plaited one didn't bother removing it the other did the plaited pony got stolen 2 days later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

beats me why these people are so adamant it doesn't mean anything when they have no proof it doesn't where i know some proof it is some of the ponies stolen were across the road in in a field and we since found out a dog walker witnessed a short grey hair bloke with a kid actually doing something to the ponies front end couldn't see what as she thought he owned them . That night the gate was smashed and an attempted theft luckily they escaped threw the gate and they went down to the bottom of my village near station passes bye loured them into someones garden I know this cos one of the guys who trapped them is picked up by my husband who gives him a lift to the station !!!!!!!!!!!!!! fact


And the yard next door is on friendly terms with some travelers and he got it from the horses mouth that SOME travelers do do this as the ones who take them are not the ones who go around looking at which ones to take in daylight then others come at night with vehicle
 
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Yes the van seems to be very distinctive although I haven't sighted it since. I'm hoping they don't return but it's quite nerve wrecking as we just don't know.

Since spreading the word to friends etc nearby, one has informed us that this van (it's so distinctive with colour that I'm confident it's the same one) was seen last year near to yards and not long after horses were stolen.

Unfortunately I have no further details :(

So far I've heard no more and no one has seen anything sus since so let's hope it stays that way :)
 
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