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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A Christmas Miracle - Breezy Has Been Rescued from Scam!


Many of you may remember having received my email a few months ago about some former employees of ours who had been fired for incompetence, chronic alcoholism and theft - and then they got together and decided to create an "isolation facility" that they called "Terra Ceia". They designed and published a website and started contacting our clients, using the data base that they had stolen from our office while we were away delivering horses to clients. Wow! What a nightmare that turned out to be! Happily, they were only able to lure one victim into their web of deception. But that was one too many.

Last week we learned that they had told a client in Europe that they were going to finally ship her horse (after having had the mare for two months) on December 1st. Well, December 1st came and went ... and so did the container that they were supposed to be sharing with another isolation facility ... without the horse. They did not call. They did not cancel the space. They did not pay the freight forwarder the money that they had been paid in advance for the flight. They simply did not show up at the airport.

Then they contacted the European client and said that they were going to take her horse to another shipping company in Miami and ship her from there. The client became very concerned, as she had paid in advance for the quarantine and shipping ... and did not receive her horse. She did not want her horse to go to another unknown facility. She sent emails that were not answered. She called and left messages that were not answered. She was being ignored ... and they had her horse!

That's when we became involved. The client asked us to find her horse and get her away from these people. So ... we did! Here's what happened.

Given what we know of these individuals' characters, we thought it wise to go with law enforcement officials to keep the peace. So, we drove to Cameron, Texas and went directly to the sheriff's department. We had called them the day before to make arrangements for this visit. When we arrived, a deputy sheriff went to "Terra Ceia" to find out what was going on. Then he called and asked us to meet him there.

While we were enroute to the address that the client had given us, we had a call from the deputy that made our hearts sink. He had talked to the owner of the property and was told that they had moved out, lock, stock and barrel, a week prior to our arrival.

We also learned that the seven barns, hotwalker, paddocks, trucks and trailers that they advertised on their website did not belong to these poeple. They belonged to the owner of the property. They had been leasing one barn and living in the barn for the past 90 days. We were told that they had not been able to make their payments and had been causing so much trouble and failing to hold up their end of the bargain that at the end of the 90 day option period, the owner of the property asked them to leave.

Well, we were really blessed to be accompanied by a dedicated law enforcement officer. Deputy Hoyt got a phone number for the female perpetrator - called her - and after she feigned ignorance, he explained the consequences of international horse theft. It didn't take him long to convince her to bring the horse to the place where we were waiting to pick her up.

After a very long and stressful night waiting for these people to find a friend who could come and pick up the mare (They don't own a horse trailer!), it all came to a peaceful and happy ending. So, to make a long story short, the mare is now safe and sound at our facility - has started quarantine - and will go to her new home in Europe in January. It feels really good to be able to be help create a happy ending to what could have been such a sad story.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Miracles do happen!

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