Incident Date:

10/22/2016
Location:
Clyde (Haywood County), NC, 28721, USA

4:20 am Horses stolen. We have pictures of Truck and Trailer and Description by worker that saw the truck and trailer. Horses transported across state line to Knoxville Livestock Auction in Mascot, TN. Horses sold Saturday Afternoon 10/22/2016. Law enforcement is involved.

That’s what we started to work with-but at least we had a place to start which is a lot more than what we usually have. Our volunteers went to work while the owner worked with law enforcement. The ALERT went out to our network so all of our amazing linked up friends knew to look for these two. The Facebook posts on all of the groups starting going up as well as the posts on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, and Reddit. Thousands of people were looking for Bella & Romeo.

Then a contact with a rescue called-“I think Bella is in the pens at Bastrop. I don’t see the mini though.” Some fast phone calls were made, photos flew back, and it was confirmed-yes, it was Bella-much thinner-and she had just been sold to go to Mexico. While that situation was remedied and quarantine was arranged, focus shifted to finding Romeo.

Investigation and back-tracking found that Romeo had been sold in Tennessee to a young man who lived in the northern part of Texas. He’d saved his money and gone to the auction to buy his own pony, but when he found out that Romeo had been stolen, he willingly gave him up. Somebody is raising that young fellow right. Thank you, parents and young man.

We got Bella and Romeo back together at the same quarantine place-and, sure enough, they both came down sick from all this. The quarantine had their hands full nursing them for a couple of weeks until they turned the corner and became well enough to travel home.

Perhaps the best description came from this quote from The Mountaineer: 

“The sense of relief is plain on the faces of humans and horses as Russ and Patricia Parker were reunited Wednesday with their beloved horses, Bella and Romeo.

The horses and their owners were separated in an 80-hour ordeal that began early Saturday morning when they were stolen from their pasture.

Thanks to the help of a vast network of horsemen, law enforcement, Internet savvy well wishers, and one big-hearted little boy, the horses are safely back home in what Russ and Patricia describe as a “miraculous happy ending.”