And just on a funny note, well, sort of; I had an almost completely opposite incident happen one night, and this is a CRAZY story!
One morning about 4 years ago we had a very hard knock on the door at about 6am (we're usually up at 3:30am) We were up, but hadn't seen anyone drive up. It was the local Sheriff's Department. The 'knock' was more like a BANG, BANG, BANG (with a maglite). I answered the door and immediately had two deputies in my face asking me where we'd gotten all the "new" cattle. "Huh???? What cattle??" One of these guys looked at me like I was obtuse and pointed to one of our high pastures. There were about (80) head of whiteface steers in the pasture...and the weren't ours! Our cows and bulls were in a different pasture. I flipped out! I explained I had no idea where these steers came from. Our cattle are a completely different breed, and most all the authorities in the area know what our cattle look like. I was both shocked and stumped. I suggested we go out and try to find some brands to see if we could figure out where they came from.
After grabbing my boots, we went up to the pasture to see what the hell was going on. Nothing like this had ever happened to us before, so I was completely clueless. But, because it was a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of livestock mysteriously in my pasture, I was more than happy to cooperate!
Long story short; someone had stolen (wrestled) these steers from a ranch about 10 miles away. After tracking where they'd come from it became apparent they must have been using a couple pickup trucks to drive them down the roads. At some point they'd lost control of them and they ran down our dead end road. Not knowing what else to do, they'd apparently herded them into one of our pastures, likely with the intent of coming back to get them later.
Now, you'd think you'd hear something like this going on in the middle of the night, but it's not like that. If done carefully, cattle can be moved very quietly, and that's exactly what these guys had done. This was a professional theft operation, and my wife and I...and even our dogs...never heard a thing. Granted, the pasture was over a half a mile from the house, so someone could make a lot of noise and not be heard at that distance.
By daylight the whole ordeal had become a spectator event we could have sold tickets to. The rightful owners were eventually located, but it wasn't easy because the cattle had been newly purchased, so the brand tracing had to go from Colorado, up through Wyoming, and back to Colorado. By this time the State Brand Inspector was involved, and in order to release the cattle to the rightful owners the owner's had to provide all the transfer paperwork. What this meant was we had to put up with all these wild assed steers (and they were wild too!) until all that got sorted out, which turned out to be most of the day.
While all this was going on I went up to one of our outbuildings where the wife and I had recently completed a nice little patio area to relax during the afternoons. Well, that 'nice little patio' area was completely destroyed. When these cattle thieves had lost control of these animals in the middle of the night they took off running, stampede like. They'd completely destroyed out little patio area, and I mean like every single bit of it. Trampled all the tables and chairs. All that was left was twisted wreckage. But again, this location was over a half a mile from the house, so we never heard a thing.
In the end, the livestock owners sent over a cattle hauler and we gave them a hand loading up all their animals, and they went on their merry way. Obviously, they were pretty happy their cattle had been recovered, (and they've been great friends ever since) and we were pretty happy to get somebody else's cows off our pastures.
Probably one of the funniest moments about that day was...there were some 1st year heifers in with these steers. Our herd bull, Jack, thought he'd gone to heaven when he saw those girls! LOLOL! Keeping him from plowing through fences to get to them was one of the hardest parts of the day.
Long and short...this story just goes to show you that just living out in the country doesn't mean weird shit doesn't happen. It does! Sometimes 10x times over.
That's a true story too.
Edit - Never heard any more about who the perpetrators were, or even if they were ever caught. Had several investigators show up from the Brand Board and the State Police in the following weeks, but never heard if they caught anyone. We were never even remotely implicated.
One morning about 4 years ago we had a very hard knock on the door at about 6am (we're usually up at 3:30am) We were up, but hadn't seen anyone drive up. It was the local Sheriff's Department. The 'knock' was more like a BANG, BANG, BANG (with a maglite). I answered the door and immediately had two deputies in my face asking me where we'd gotten all the "new" cattle. "Huh???? What cattle??" One of these guys looked at me like I was obtuse and pointed to one of our high pastures. There were about (80) head of whiteface steers in the pasture...and the weren't ours! Our cows and bulls were in a different pasture. I flipped out! I explained I had no idea where these steers came from. Our cattle are a completely different breed, and most all the authorities in the area know what our cattle look like. I was both shocked and stumped. I suggested we go out and try to find some brands to see if we could figure out where they came from.
After grabbing my boots, we went up to the pasture to see what the hell was going on. Nothing like this had ever happened to us before, so I was completely clueless. But, because it was a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of livestock mysteriously in my pasture, I was more than happy to cooperate!
Long story short; someone had stolen (wrestled) these steers from a ranch about 10 miles away. After tracking where they'd come from it became apparent they must have been using a couple pickup trucks to drive them down the roads. At some point they'd lost control of them and they ran down our dead end road. Not knowing what else to do, they'd apparently herded them into one of our pastures, likely with the intent of coming back to get them later.
Now, you'd think you'd hear something like this going on in the middle of the night, but it's not like that. If done carefully, cattle can be moved very quietly, and that's exactly what these guys had done. This was a professional theft operation, and my wife and I...and even our dogs...never heard a thing. Granted, the pasture was over a half a mile from the house, so someone could make a lot of noise and not be heard at that distance.
By daylight the whole ordeal had become a spectator event we could have sold tickets to. The rightful owners were eventually located, but it wasn't easy because the cattle had been newly purchased, so the brand tracing had to go from Colorado, up through Wyoming, and back to Colorado. By this time the State Brand Inspector was involved, and in order to release the cattle to the rightful owners the owner's had to provide all the transfer paperwork. What this meant was we had to put up with all these wild assed steers (and they were wild too!) until all that got sorted out, which turned out to be most of the day.
While all this was going on I went up to one of our outbuildings where the wife and I had recently completed a nice little patio area to relax during the afternoons. Well, that 'nice little patio' area was completely destroyed. When these cattle thieves had lost control of these animals in the middle of the night they took off running, stampede like. They'd completely destroyed out little patio area, and I mean like every single bit of it. Trampled all the tables and chairs. All that was left was twisted wreckage. But again, this location was over a half a mile from the house, so we never heard a thing.
In the end, the livestock owners sent over a cattle hauler and we gave them a hand loading up all their animals, and they went on their merry way. Obviously, they were pretty happy their cattle had been recovered, (and they've been great friends ever since) and we were pretty happy to get somebody else's cows off our pastures.
Probably one of the funniest moments about that day was...there were some 1st year heifers in with these steers. Our herd bull, Jack, thought he'd gone to heaven when he saw those girls! LOLOL! Keeping him from plowing through fences to get to them was one of the hardest parts of the day.
Long and short...this story just goes to show you that just living out in the country doesn't mean weird shit doesn't happen. It does! Sometimes 10x times over.
That's a true story too.
Edit - Never heard any more about who the perpetrators were, or even if they were ever caught. Had several investigators show up from the Brand Board and the State Police in the following weeks, but never heard if they caught anyone. We were never even remotely implicated.