Should we worry?

[FestiveFuzz]

As we arrived back from riding yesterday we were followed onto the farm by a guy in a works car. We thought he was lost so one of the girls asked if she could help. He said he was from Poland and just wanted to see some horses as he missed them, then got out of his car and started stroking one of our horses. Our yard is full of coloured show horses so we were all a bit suspicious of his real motives. Are we right to worry or are we just being a tad over-cautious? What would you do in this situation?

 

[JM07]

as he was in a "works car" i'm assuming you clocked the name of the firm on the car.....ring them, mention what happened and find out if he's kosher..

if not, inform the police of a suspious driver in a certain firms car...and ask them to visit said firm..

 

[ischa]

just keep a look out and make sure evrything is locked up
my horses got stolen the other week someone took them from the field but they must have been caught or heard something
cause they let them go and they ended runny down the road lucky there is a house at the bottom of the road that had a big field and the owner caught them and stuck them in there so he could trace me
and there all freezemarked too so as i say just keep your eye out

 

[Skhosu]

Would you be as suspicious if it was an educated sounding british person?
Worth keeping an eye out, is your yard security good?

 

[FestiveFuzz]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you be as suspicious if it was an educated sounding british person?
Worth keeping an eye out, is your yard security good?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely!!! It is irelevant what his background is, it was the fact that he followed us down the road and then wanted to see our horses that concerned us, not the fact he was polish! Our security is pretty good but there have been quite a few thefts in the area recently hence us being so cautious.

 

[KarynK]

Do you have a local horsewatch? If so they can help you report it to the police and get him checked out, it might be as he says but in this day and age you can never be sure, so circulating it via horsewatch will make everyone aware.

If you have the firm name if they are a well known reputable company contact them just to check, if not google them, then give the info to your local police. Community Intelligence is one of the big things at the moment, they will be measured on it!

 

[whoaboy]

I had this by a polish guy at the garage, he was asking where I kept my horses and how much do they fetch over here as he was interested in importing them from Poland???? He kept chatting away, very unnerving, I never gave him any information, contact your local horsewatch, any information like this is always useful.

 

[KarynK]

Please Please if someone strange is around your yards get the vehicle registration and description, it is such a big help to the police in tracking these individuals than male 6' average build in a green T shirt!

If there is no vehicle, look at them closely and look for unusual things, such as glasses, tattoos, piercings, scars, facial features, unusual accents jewellery etc. Something that might stick out, clothing people can change but not a distinctive tattoo, write it down together with anything interesting they say especially any phone numbers given!, write it as soon as you can with the time and date and direction they travelled in.

If someone does call and you have CCTV preserve it! I would also suggest you remove valuable items for a while. WIpe the padlock clean before leaving and any other smooth surface someone might touch if the break in, might have a chance at some fingerprints and other forensics that way.
If you do have a break in don't touch anything if you can get away with it pending the arrival of the police. If you have had suspicious visits tell the officer as they might not know, tell them if the items touched have recently been cleaned and if there is any CCTV around etc.

Keep a list of your tack with pictures of the good peices keep the receipts, have the tack marked then you have a better chance of getting it back and the police have a chance to prosecute.

A friend had a male enquire re livery at her yard the other day, the sort of person who would not normally do so if you get my drift. Sure enough on checking CCTV they came back to look at the facilities later that night without and escort!!!!!

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Thanks so much to everyones responses! We shall definately get in touch with our local horsewatch, just to be on the safe side

I think our YO was looking into whether the company was reputable but I may just check what the outcome was tomorrow as I would hate for something to happen only to find it could have been prevented.