Thieves! Be aware.

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 October 2006
Messages
979
Location
West Yorkshire
Visit site
Anyone in the West Yorkshire area. We had all the rugs stolen off the horses backs in the stables last night. Halifax area. Please keep an eye out for suspicious vehicles hanging around.
 
Not in my area but I am sorry to hear this... makes me wander what goes through these evil people's minds when doing such a calous thing.
The poor horses must have thought they'd be naughty or something to have rugs off in the night and left with out any warmth :( :(

This seems to be such an on going issue everywhere still and is such a sad state of affairs that people stoop this low when you can get hold of good 2nd hand rugs cheap easily these days they just need to cough up the cash instead of nicking everyone else's hard earned cash from their animals.
 
Sorry to hear that, scumbags. I recently had a £300 solar energiser nicked along with all my fence posts. What bothers me more is the fact that the thieves come in contact with my horse.
 
It occurs to me that these thefts are why 2nd hand rugs are cheap. People who steal them can afford to sell them on cheaply as they didn't have to pay for them. So it could be they are not stolen to be used at all just to turn a quick buck. Has anyone devised a good marking system for rugs ? I for one would like to know what would be best.
 
Of course they're being stolen to sell on. They're just petty thieves. When our tack and rugs got stolen they dropped really good things and took a lot of crap. They had obviously no idea what was worth anything, but were just taking a chance.

Writing "if not at XXXXXX poscode, this is stolen" where it can be seen may help.
 
It's everything that's being nicked.

Rugs.

Haybales.

Haylage bales.

Feed and the feedbins.

Forget the resale value of anything you own. Forget how much you affect the resale value by marking it in huge great letters with your phone or postcode.

Paint it and mark it in big letters with gloss or acrylic paint that won't wear off in the rain, by brush or spray, smartwater it and then paint on write on it in big letters that it is smartwatered too.

Mark everything you can from scissors and hoofpicks (use a permanent marker pen) to electric fence posts, showjumps, troughs and gates.

Cut all the baler twine off your haybales and take the twine home if you don't live on site.

Even when you've done all this, realise and accept that all you've done is potentially put off the thieves for a while. You won't stop them and they will have your stuff one day but each day that your stuff isn't nicked is one day longer that you don't have to shell out to replace it.
 
Mark your rugs with gloss paint......postcode on one side, freezemark on the other. Large as you like.

Looks messy, but so what? They cannot be sold on and are easily identified.

I leave nothing on my yard....mucking out stuff, feed....thats it.

Mark everything and put up a sign saying that everything has been marked.

If they can't sell it on, they most likely won't nick it......
 
Also, be aware of replacing it. They will know where they have stolen from, so will be on the look out for newer rugs as well!!
 
Hippona said:
Mark your rugs with gloss paint......postcode on one side, freezemark on the other. Large as you like.

Looks messy, but so what? They cannot be sold on and are easily identified.

I leave nothing on my yard....mucking out stuff, feed....thats it.

Mark everything and put up a sign saying that everything has been marked.

If they can't sell it on, they most likely won't nick it......
Click to expand...

Not sure about that, a local riding school at my old house had their postcoded rugs nicked, and they were next seen being worn by the local traveller horses in a field less than a mile away. The police wouldnt do anything. But agree it would stop them selling them on.
 
Postcode rugs with large lettering, tackmark tack, Mark the roof of horseboxes and trailers with large lettering, Freezemark horses and use Smartwater to mark everything else. Also be aware that it is common for the thieves to return about 6 weeks later to steel the new items that have replaced the stolen ones.
Don't buy second hand/used goods as this only encourages them to steal more items!
 
mtj said:
Rugs also stolen from horses backs in Wisbech, Cambs. Horsewatch has this recorded as 7/12/12.
Click to expand...

I was in local saddlery in Wisbech today and the lady that had been robbed came in. Overheard her talking to shop lady and yes, rugs taken off horse's backs. Also a saddle and some hay apparently.
Not the first time they've been done over either. Unfortunately, as someone else has said, and from my own bitter experience of burglary, 9 times out of 10, you WILL be targeted again, as they know the insurance will have replaced the stolen items.
Scum of the earth :(
 
A local riding school near me used to be happy when their horse's ripped their new rugs, they'd call me out and I would repair rugs on site in those days, so I used to put a patch on that was a completely different colour to the rest of the rug, sometimes really garish colours and very bad colour matches to try to deter the thieving scumbags, they really looked awful when I had finished with them!
They'd have more trouble selling rugs with patches all over it and looking like joseph's technicolor dreamcoat as well as that it was much easier for the owner to identify their rug if spotted on another horse or on ebay etc.
Oz :)
 
A couple of years ago rugs were stolen off the yard owners horses. She bought new rugs, a pot of white gloss and painted the postcode on one side and 'this rug is stolen' on the other. Made us laugh but it seemed to work.
 
After being burgled a few years ago I marked everything in paint or engraving with 'stolen'

Went a bit t*ts up when I tried to sell my sat nav on ebay mind :p

I think its shocking that people steal rugs off horses, they go for so little money on ebay and Facebook unless they are the higher end of the market and even then you'd have to question whether it was worth the risk of stealing them!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top