Joshua Trapp has been raising horses on his ranch for the past 14 years, and throughout that time, he's been trying to fend off teenagers who continuously steal his animals. Most recently, his horse, Coconut, was stolen and injured. By the time Trapp found him, he had a broken rib and was limping.
But Trapp is at his wits' end, and not sure how to deal with the intruders. Today, we stopped by his ranch to speak with him and check on Coconut. Courtney Menzies has this story.
This is Coconut. He went missing over the weekend but his owner, Joshua Trapp, knew that he didn't just wander off. Coconut is a docile horse that normally stays put, and that's why Trapp suspected he'd been stolen.
Joshua Trapp, Ranch Owner
"We realized the horse was missing about 6:00 or a little bit later than that in the evening because the horse usually comes close by the house to eat molasses and no one saw the horse but yesterday morning about 5:00 when I got in, I did not see the horse. I saw all the horses that hang with him and that's when I said something is wrong, I drove the entire property, couldn't find him so I said okay something is wrong. So when I left the property, I started inquiring about if anything knows the whereabouts of a horse and then they told me to check with a person so I called the person, a special constable and he told me about it. So I found the horse later on, I think it's like 4 miles or 5 miles on the Phillip Goldson Highway."
And it's not the first time Trapp's ranch behind Los Lagos has been targeted. He believes that the culprits are minors from Belize City and he showed us where they gained access - by cutting the wire of his barb fence and sneaking in through the mud and water, leaving footprints in their wake. At one point, they even left their footwear on the ranch.
Joshua Trapp, Ranch Owner
"The first time we had footage of, I would say teenagers, between 17 and 19 years old on the property. They left some slippers, some crocs, on the property. This time I got the understanding that it was a 14 and a 15 year old kids that they found on the horse."
Courtney Menzies:
"What do you think is their fascination? I mean, they risk a lot coming in through the barbed fence to steal someone else's horses."
Joshua Trapp, Ranch Owner
"I would never say it's love for horses because if you love a horse you would never go and steal a horse and ride the horse, what, 15 miles to the city to chance the horse. So that's not love."
Courtney Menzies:
"And your horse, Coconut, came back injured?"
Joshua Trapp, Ranch Owner
"Coconut is injured, he has a big swelling on his side. I'm going to get the vet involved after scenes of crime comes and let's see exactly what happened to him. He's limping a little bit, not much, but he's fatigued."
And earlier this year, 15 of Trapp's horses were stolen from this very ranch. It's a reoccurring problem that he will now have to pay to fix.
Joshua Trapp, Ranch Owner
"It's not only frustrating, it's super frustrating. The reason why is that in the past we have had problems while we had cruise ship here, we get to understand that they stole some horses. We found right at the checkpoint in Hattieville one of our horses dead, that's some years ago. And just like that, over and over, we have been targeted. I'm not saying it's only us, maybe there are other people but it hurts us because in the city, there is a lot of horses that I think should not be in the city. But there's a lot of horses right there and our horses are in an enclosed area and they still come, cut our fence and take our horses so it's really upsetting."
"We will not want to go to a harsh situation, so I'll leave it up to the police. Now, for instance, when I get through today I'm going to set up cameras around the place. It's costly but we got to do it and hopefully we get some footage and hand it over to the police and see if justice prevail."
For now Coconut is still in pain as police try to find his kidnappers.
According to Trapp, Coconut is worth about $15,000 dollars. Police are still investigating, but have not made any arrests yet.
