WHEN HORSE THEFT IS NOT A "CRIME"

Your horse has vanished and someone else is responsible. But if the police deem the case a civil matter, recovering your horse will be much more difficult, if not impossible. Don’t let this happen to you.

Phone calls went unanswered. Messages weren’t returned. Undaunted, Jill Black repeatedly called her close friend, who was caring for her two horses while she was away. Days passed. Finally, Black got a response, but it was not the one she was expecting: Her horses were dead, both killed in a horrible storm.

She reeled in disbelief. Dead? How could both horses be dead?

Civil theft occurs when someone who has legal access to your horse takes him or sells him without

your permission.

Five months earlier, in January 2013, Black had relocated from North Carolina to North Dakota, and she had left her two geldings, Shatan and Sony, with a friend in North Carolina until she could find a place to keep them. Now, finally settled into a new home, Black was trying to reach her friend to make arrangements to transport the horses when she got the bad news.

Suspecting something wasn’t right, Black sent a veterinarian to her friend’s property to confirm the story, but he was blocked from entering. Next, she called the sheriff’s department, and some important details of the case were quickly flushed out. Shatan and Sony weren’t dead. Her friend, who was being paid to care for them, instead sold them just weeks after they arrived at her farm.

“I was devastated, and I could not eat or sleep, telling myself it was my fault for leaving them,” says Black. And, she adds, “I wanted something done. This person committed a crime by selling [my] horses without my permission.”

But the local law enforcement provided no help. Black was told her case did not involve theft because the person who sold the horses had legal possession of them. Instead, she says, the authorities told her it was a civil matter, and there was nothing they could do. If she wanted her horses back, she was told, Black would have to sue and take her case to court.

While it might seem obvious to you that a person who sells your horse without your permission has, in effect, stolen him, that’s not always the case. “Civil theft” is, legally speaking, quite different than criminal theft, which is the type of crime that occurs when someone cuts your fence and removes a horse from your property without permission. In the latter, there is a clear delineation between the criminal and the victim. A civil matter, in contrast, is considered a dispute between two honest people. If the police decide your case is civil, rightfully or not, they will decline to treat it as a crime.

Getting your horse back after a civil theft is possible, but it can be difficult and expensive, and you need to take the right steps from the beginning to improve your chances of success. Your better bet is to take measures to not let it happen to you. Here’s what you need to know.

CIVIL VERSUS CRIMINAL

What exactly is “civil theft”? The answer depends on whom you talk to and where you live. Right now, Florida is the only state that has a civil theft statute, which includes the definition, “obtaining or using the property of the Plaintiff by taking or exercising control over property” and “making that an unauthorized use, disposition, or transfer of property.” In other words, civil theft occurs when someone who has legal access to your horse takes him or sells him without your permission.

This isn’t uncommon. “As an active horse owner myself, I had heard stories time and again from horse owners: ‘I left my horse at a boarding facility … with a friend … with a trainer … and the horses went missing,’” says former paralegal Pamela Garron of Sanford, North Carolina. For example, a horse may be sold by an angry spouse or

another family member. The perpetrators might claim that they have a right to hold and/or sell your horse, especially if they believe you owe them money.

Often, whether a case is treated as criminal or civil comes down to the response from law enforcement. From your perspective as the “victim,” you may want the police to arrest the “perpetrator” immediately and return your horse to you. At the very least, you want them to treat your case as a crime and investigate it accordingly. But consider the perspective of the investigating officers, who are faced with two people, both claiming---correctly or not---they have ownership rights to the same horse. If both parties have any degree of legitimacy---or even if they can just convince the police that they do---law enforcement may back off and declare it a civil matter.

Many times, it comes down to your ability to prove your case. If you cannot present indisputable evidence that the horse was taken from your custody wrongfully, the police will be unable to prosecute the case as a crime, and they may decline to pursue the investigation any further.

And, sometimes, the police may just not want to be bothered. The majority of those serving their communities take their oath in the pursuit of justice seriously. But, as the founder and president of Stolen Horse International, a nonprofit group that offers resources to help people find and recover horses who have been lost, stolen or missing for any reason, I have encountered many people in law enforcement who simply don’t want to deal with “a horse case” or don’t have the expertise to do so. You may have to pursue your case as a civil matter regardless.

IF IT HAPPENS TO YOU

The moment you realize your horse isn’t where you think he’s supposed to be, your first actions are critical to establishing your rights and gaining the cooperation of your local law enforcement to treat your case like a criminal action. Here’s what to do:

• Call the police right away. Your call will trigger a police report---a written record of your complaint---and launch an investigation. Even if you know who is responsible for the disappearance of your horse, this step is critical to establishing your case. As you describe the situation to the officer who responds, stick to the facts and avoid making personal attacks against other people.

• Press for a higher authority. If the first officer you talk to says it’s not a criminal case, don’t stop there. “Just because this guy rolls out of his patrol car and tells you there’s nothing he can do, that is not necessarily the end of it,” says Robert Jordan, former director of the Mississippi Agricultural & Livestock Theft Bureau. “That guy has people he answers to, and if you think he has wronged you, do not be intimidated by that uniform and the car he is driving.”