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Theft

I am hoping for some guidance here. I left a sealed envelope SECURELY fastened to the stall door with my farrier’s name prominently written on it. I wisely took a photo of it before leaving. I came back not even 24-hours later and IT’S GONE. Not just the envelope but also everything I used to attach it to the door (envelope + clip + tape). I immediately reported it to the owner/manager and while she says she asked around, she said no one knew anything about it. She told me to ask the other boarders, so I did. Nada. Not one peep. Or in other words no one wrote back.

Now I don’t know what to do. This has broken the trust of the farm. It’s a private gated place so I highly doubt some stranger wandered in and only stole this one envelope, and I also highly doubt the few boarders we have would have even noticed (all except the one girl who saw me photograph it), and I REALLY hope it wasn’t her.

I’ve seen other boarders leave money for farriers and vets and I’ve never heard of any other thefts, so WHY this one?

It was $100 in cash, and while that is unsettling, what is even more troubling is that had it been a check the perpetrator could have used that for identity theft and I assume I would have gotten the same nonchalant ‘maybe the wind blew it’ response from the owner?

The human species blows my mind.

Are there any others with similar ‘money stolen’ experiences?

Any recourse besides moving out, or just another case of ‘people suck’ and no one can be trusted?

Suggest your farrier accept PayPal? Sorry that’s all I’ve got.

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Either use Venmo or put it somewhere not on display. I would check the trash just in case it landed on the floor. Your secure might have gotten knocked off when someone was feeding or turning in or out.

If it was a check, you could just put a stop payment on it.

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PayPal, Venmo, or mail a check. Yes people suck. And the sad reality is you will likely never realize who was the thief. That or a lockbox of some sort or a hidden location you tell your farrier about. Or perhaps if there is a BM on site give them the money to pay the farrier. I take it your horse is shod with no one handling?

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No recourse to the money you’ve lost. There is no point in trying to suss out who stole it-- you have no way to know (and chances are it’s not who you think. When I worked in a large office building, anytime a purse or something went missing, people all assumed it was one of the mailroom crew or the cleaning service, i.e. lower income people. The reality is, there is no “demographic” to petty thieves, they’re everywhere and its often the person you’d least suspect.

If leaving cash is unavoidable, get one of these and mount it on your stall and give your farrier the combo. Or mail the check in advance so your farrier has the payment by barn day.

Leaving cash anywhere is just foolhardy.

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I am still sitting here shocked that someone left $100 cash taped to a stall door.

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In an envelope? With the farrier’s name on it? In a barn in a gated community? A barn I imagine she has been at for a while? I would do it. And I would expect it to still be there when the Farrier arrived.

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Oh, don’t get me wrong, I think it should still be there too. Scary that someone took it.
But, back to common sense stuff, leaving $100 in an envelope taped to a stall is probably not one of the wisest things to do.
There are so many ways that could go wrong, even if one of them is not that someone stole it.

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Obviously I didn’t leave a $100 bill flying in the wind for all to see. I wrote ‘envelope’. A sealed, envelope addressed to the farrier which was then clipped and taped to the door hung high above the normal eyeline.

PS - no one could see what was inside the envelope. Could have been a note, or a $20 bill or a check. Still was not theirs to take. THAT’S the point. WHY steal on a farm that is basically closed to the public? The workers live on site, as do the owner’s/managers. And it’s not a busy place. … AND I’ve seen other boarders do the same thing. Some not even with an envelope, just a check clipped to the stall.

What I’m asking is how would you address this with the farm if it happened to you?

It’s broken the trust that should be part of any common sense “standards and ethics” business practice.

Are you 100% sure your farrier didn’t actually take it? When was he due?

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He wasn’t due for a few days. I hadn’t been feeling all that great and thought I’d get a jump on it.

I thought about that at first, too, but he gave no impression he had been out and was a bit confused why I asked, until I told him.

I used to leave a check well buried in my tack trunk. Then texted farrier on how to find it (e.g., under Dobbin’s ear bonnets.) Current farrier takes Venmo.

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I do this at my barn and twice that amount. We are a small barn and so far, no issues.

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I mean still… that’s just too easy for somebody to grab. When there’s no cameras, no one watching, no trace of it coming back, it’s just too easy for someone to grab it and for you to assume it blew away in the wind because you’ll never know who did it and even if you do find out, you’ll never be able to prove it. Just think of it as an expensive lesson. There’s nothing to address with the barn, they’re not responsible.

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People at my barn leave envelopes addressed to farriers and other service providers on a table in the tack room at my barn all the time. I personally would never do so - I leave it in my trunk or somewhere less obvious or these days just pay with Venmo. It’s too easy for things at a barn to get misplaced or knocked off or blown away, even with no ill intention.

You thought it was a safe thing to do. You learned it wasn’t. Unless there starts to be a pattern of thefts I don’t think the barn management has any responsibility here.

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Never, IMO, cash.

I like Zelle. The funds are deposited where the recipient wants them; all I do is tell my bank who to send the money to.

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Over the course of a few days, that seems ripe for something like an envelope becoming detached from the door on its own and disappearing. Cash or check, it’s not wise to leave funds or things with your personal information lying around for days on end to go missing, which can happen for entirely innocuous reasons.

My farrier takes Venmo or I just mail him a check. My checks are always good so he doesn’t care.

Back in ye olden days, there was always a spot in the barn where we all left these things for the service provider who needed them.

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The fact that EVERYthing is gone - the clip, the tape, the UFO photo - EVERYTHING you put on the stall door is gone - leads me to believe it fell off and blew away.

Don’t be a dope and tape cash to your stall door next time.

How many of us learned the hard way (sometimes twice) not to ride with cash in a back pocket, or it would find its way into the ether? Chalk it up to a lesson learned, and write checks or get a more “hip” way to pay. This is 100% not the barn’s fault. It’s YOUR fault for being a ding dong. Own it, and move on. If you don’t want to own that this was your fault, I suggest you move anyways because your bad attitude isn’t wanted at the barn. :wink:

It’s the horse’s fault too, I bet…

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You could pressure the BO to find out who stole it, then ask the BO to ask them to leave.
Or you could leave.
Or you can chalk it up as a lesson learned.

Those are really your only options as far as I can see.

A boarder could have had a friend with them at the barn that day, it could’ve been someone delivering a package or DoorDash, etc. A horse or dog could’ve snagged it off the door. I mean, anything could’ve happened. Without cameras, you’ll never know unless someone fesses up.

I get that it’s a gated community and all but, thefts happen in gated communities too, it’s not a crime that is specific to low-income areas. Ish happens.

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At our old house, an elderly neighbor’s mail somehow blew out of the mailbox & down the road into the field containing another neighbor’s herd of Boer goats. Neighbor #1 knocked on our door to ask if I could wade out into the field for her to prise what was left of the mail out of the clutches of the Boer. :rofl:

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