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Someone broke into a barn and stole Lauren Stockwell's new, $3,000 saddle, and she's angry. She's also doing everything she can to get it back.
"They stole from the wrong barn," she said. "I will get my saddle back, and the person or persons [responsible] will be punished."
Stockwell, 17, a Robinson Secondary School senior, lives in Fairfax and works as a sales associate at the Clifton Saddlery. She also boards her quarterhorse, Della, at a barn on Lakewood Lane in Fairfax Station.
But between midnight, Jan. 11, and dawn, Jan. 12, the barn was ransacked and several items were taken. Five horses were out in a field at the time and were unharmed. The crime was discovered, early Jan. 12, when another one of the boarders, a Fairfax Station woman, went to the barn to feed the horses.
"When she got there, the front entrance was still locked, so she undid the lock, went in and discovered that all the tack — riding gear, saddles, bridles, etc. — was gone," said Stockwell. "And some of the grooming supplies on a shelf were knocked over and everything was on the floor."
She says the thieves pried open the back door, probably with a crowbar, and dropped some of the tack outside on the road, "so it seems as if they were in a hurry. What wasn't taken looked like it had been dropped on the ground — the barn was pretty much of a mess."
Unfortunately, most of the stolen items belonged to Stockwell. "We estimate about $5,000 worth of tack was taken, and $3,000 of it was mine," she said. "I spent years acquiring it from all over the country — Texas, Colorado, Wyoming — and some of it I won in [riding] competitions."
She was at school, Jan. 12, so she didn't find out what happened until about 3 p.m. when a friend picked her up and took her to the barn. But when she arrived, it was too upsetting for her to face initially. "I went out to the field and hugged my horse for about 15 minutes," said Stockwell. "I didn't even want to go to the tack room — I just wanted it to be a bad dream."
But her friend made her do it so they could make a list of what was taken for the police. "I was devastated," she said. "It's so much money, and the stuff took me so long to get. I don't even know how I'm going to get it all back."
Especially crushing to Stockwell was that one of the saddles that was stolen was a present from her parents for her upcoming graduation in June. It was supposed to last her a long time, until she got enough money to start her own equine business. She hopes to someday breed and train horses on her own farm.
"It was really, really nice," she said. "It was a tan, Circle Y brand, western saddle like they use in rodeos. It was worth $3,000, and it had a matching bridle and breastplate. I'd only had it three weeks."
Stockwell said the victims suspect that local teens were the culprits, later selling their property for drug money. Meanwhile, they've contacted as many horse-related businesses as they could in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and West Virginia, and alerted them about what happened, in case any of the pilfered items show up.
Anyone with any information about this case, the thieves or the stolen items is urged to call Fairfax County police at 703-691-2131 or Crime Solvers at 703-691-8888 or e-mail equinegirl4@yahoo.com.
"By getting out the word, I'm hoping that someone will know something — or will have seen something — or, at least, will have a suggestion for me on how to find my stuff," said Stockwell. She said that, once the shock of the theft wore off, her attitude changed to determination.
"They may have stolen my stuff, but I'm going to make sure they have a very hard time selling it to anyone else," she said. Stockwell also noted that her family is offering a reward for information leading to the recovery of the items.
"If we get my stuff back, it will be a very gracious reward," she said. She also made it clear that she and her family "are in no way blaming the owner of the property and don't plan to sue" over the loss. Said Stockwell: "We just want my stuff back."