I see that now. I was in a similar situation once. My stuff never got stolen but I didn’t like the people who lived on the property and there was weird stuff happening regarding my stall being cleaned while I wasn’t there and my horse being fed/not fed mysteriously. I lasted less than a week.
2 Likes
It sounds like this person probably moves from place to place frequently. She gets caught or overstays her welcome and she moves on voluntarily or not voluntarily. Probably chooses self care because it is cheaper and she can pilfer feed and hay to cut her costs. Do you know where she came from before this barn? If you can find out, ask what moved her on her way. I would keep everything locked up until she moves on.
7 Likes
Well, “lives there” is a whole new wrinkle.
Add that she’s already got you in her sights.
Just how did that living arrangement happen?
If she’s a tenant, landlord/BO needs to know she’s a potential problem.
Assuming you have longevity there, OP.
So BO knows your character, but should appreciate your heads up.
I speak as a former landlord.
I’d have wanted to know if a new tenant was causing problems for someone who’d been there longer.
10 Likes
Yea, you all nailed it. She’s a bit of a nutjob. How’d it happen? BO is super nice and fell for her sob story when a little house on the property came available. From what I heard, Mr. BO objected but Mrs. BO insisted. Honestly, she is a beautiful woman and if I had not had that initial confrontation with her, I would probably think she is a wonderful person who has fallen on hard times. She just comes across super nice and normal…until something happens like her being in a dark barn alone. There are just 2-3 other boarders right now. I’ve had long talks with one of them and we are on the same page. The other one is going through a bunch of family stuff and just really doesn’t want to deal with anything else right now.
I really don’t have any high end tack stored there. Everything I have is locked up now. It stinks but I think I have to wait this out. I have an ancient retired guy with multiple health problems and moving him would not be in his best interest. I think I will try to figure out where to place a couple of cameras where they would not be noticed. BO has a lot of security cameras around the property just not in the barn. I haven’t figured out a solution for the hay (I probably have 80 or so bales in the loft) but maybe a camera in the corner up there too.
11 Likes
Well if the relationship with her is already torched, I would flat out confront her on stealing feed.
That’s just me though.
5 Likes
Do yourself a favor & search for the Heather Hill thread on here.
It’s on the H/J forum from December 2010.
A looooooong read, but worth it.
HeatHer is currently scamming in FL (again) after a briefish return to IN.
Where she rented a barn, then skipped town owing everybody possible.
Including utilities who made new tenant post deposits for everything & sign an affidavit saying she was not HH
3 Likes
This is what I would do as well if possible.
3 Likes
I’ve been reading along and think you’ve gotten some great suggestions.
It sounds like you’re in a tough spot: you don’t want to move your elderly horse for good reasons, and it seems unlikely that the problem boarder will move of her own volition since she’s living on site.
If you haven’t done so already (and I apologize if I missed something earlier in the thread), you might discreetly ask other boarders if they are also missing hay or grain or anything. It would be useful to know if M. Craycray is only targeting your stuff or if she’s taking other people’s stuff as well.
If she’s preying on everyone’s stuff, then I think you have to have a talk with the BO, even if the BO isn’t the type to want to intervene. I’m sure the BO would want to know if one of the boarders is stealing, particularly if that boarder is living on the property. BO’s stuff (not horse-related necessarily) could also start going missing.
The BO would also have to okay either erecting a shed or even putting up wildlife cameras. If you don’t ask her permission and then she learns about the cameras, the BO is likely to think that you are the problem because you’re engaging in surveillance and possibly snooping on other boarders.
I can imagine all kinds of reasons that someone might be in a dark barn by herself, none of them good. This might also be something that the BO might want to know about, not least because some of those activities might create a safety hazard. (Some might be illegal as well).
All in all, I think that if you’re going to stay at the barn, you’re going to have to involve the BO sooner rather than later in your campaign to end the stealing.
8 Likes
I understand you already have your season’s hay bales stored in the barn’s loft. Building a shed, or even just towing in an enclosed trailer, would then involve a lot of labor to move all your hay bales.
And your horse is a senior with health problems and would not handle relocation well.
Also, your thief lives on site so she has time to search out and do whatever her thieving heart desires with your cameras and locks.
I don’t have answers but new posters should be aware of the complete situation you are facing .
4 Likes
What a pain. Do you keep a very regular schedule? Can you start dropping by at odd times? (I know that’s not necessarily easy to do, either.)
4 Likes
When we had to vote a co-op boarder off the island, we went to the Barn Owners and explained that if she was going to stay, we would have to leave. She had been extremely pleasant to them, but we saw a different side. Since we’d all been there first, they chose to believe what we were experiencing and she left a week after the meeting.
Do you hold barn meetings with the BO? Now might be a good time to start because you can bring up that you’re missing hay and grain.
11 Likes
Maybe this was said but at the very least you could take pictures and measurements, the old document document document…
2 Likes
Am I misremembering, or did you post that the husband part of the farm owners was not a fan of the probable feed thief? Maybe go to him about permission for the installation of the camera?
11 Likes
Direct one of those discreet cameras at your horse, if he’s fragile and feeding him something might compromise him.
That’s how little I trust people like this.
It might be overkill, but it doesn’t hurt.
3 Likes
You could even do this virtual…
I wonder how many cameras set to catch a thief get stolen??
1 Like
It wasn’t feed, but at a barn I managed years ago we had one boarder who felt it was her right to use everybody else’s fly spray. Over and over and over again, for a couple months.
We knew who it was and caught her doing it more than once and I discussed it with her. She kept right on doing it when nobody was looking. I had everybody else locking their fly spray in their tack locker. I left mine out…a quart bottle of Endure, maybe a third full.
Boarder came that evening…and called me, sobbing and in tears. Why?
Because she had used my fly spray. She had a horse show in two days.
Her horse was grey.
And now was covered in big blue patches from the dye I put in the bottle.
I asked her if she now understood about not stealing from others. She cried “what about my horse show? How could you be so mean?” I asked her why she could be so mean as to steal fly spray from both me and the other boarders who need our fly spray for our horses?
52 Likes
If it’s stashed correctly with infrared light, the risk is low.
I have two in my barn no one has ever noticed, including my Farrier of 20 years, until I pointed them out to him. In a loft, up high, aimed at the entrance…it’s easy.
4 Likes
Does anyone else have stuff in the loft? Or just you?
Would the BO agree to letting you put a camera up there?
I was just needing to set one up to figure out what’s setting off a motion light we have…
This little browning is easy to set up and only takes 6 AA batteries ( I use rechargeables). You can set the date/time, pop in an SD card, done. It doesn’t send images, but you can get one of those little plug ins for your phone to read the SD card from your phone. You’ll know right away if you have interesting images.
I hate a thief.
Here you go. 100 bucks has all the things needed.
11 Likes
