Erin sent me this, and I have posted a few of the ads she has sent me before but this one really caught my attention.
It is an unfortunate situation that I'm sure many of us have been in before, or at the very least a version of it. I have personally, and thats why I am posting this up for the world to see.
Horse Theft/Stopped Payment on Check (Baxter)
You can flag this all you want!! I want to get the word out to horse owners who are HONEST and don't deserve to be ripped off. This woman from Rockwell city wrote a check for my gelding and stopped payment after she had him home. She has done this to other people... look at ripped off.com. She is on there. Everyone who buys or sells horses should know about her. Donna Bowers, Rockwell City, Iowa. Stole from others, police say she has other civil action suits against her for the same thing. Here at eqivive we are running low all the time... the sale of a nice horse like Smoky the appy gelding was a huge benefit for us until she STOPPED PAYMENT on it for no reason. Thats malicious. Everyone across the country is cross posting... so whoever flags this it will be in VAIN. Amy www.equivive.com if you have a problem with this buck up and contact me instead of flagging it!!! Amy (phone #). www.equivive.com
I guess she's been posting that a number of times, and every time the post gets flagged, and removed. Hmm, well since you can't flag me, its here permanently.
So, to further this conversation, because at least Amy has an idea of where Smoky is, what have you all done to combat a woman like this? In my situation, the mare you see up on the right sidebar with the caption "Mamma Girl", I was leasing out from my former employer in exchange for feeding and cleaning stalls at her boarding property. I was also working as her housekeeper nearly full time, and the house was on the property. I had known her since I was 15, and as a teenager, she was a second mom to me.
On my 30th birthday, after 8 months of leasing the mare and just totally head over heels bonded/in love with her, her owner/my employer gave her to me outright for my 30th birthday. Wrote up a bill of sale and transfer of title to her, had it notarized and it was completely legal. That was October of 2008. A few months after that, I went from being her housekeeper back out to the horses full time like I had been as a teenager, and was working under the horse trainer she had brought in from California. Things were great for a time, then around June of last year things changed. There was an attitude shift in her and she started demanding more, more from me, yet paying the same. I won't get into the details, but at the end I was literally working over 90 hours a week for $300 / week. Do the math and yup...Thats what I was supporting my self, 2 kids, and a horse on.
I decided it wasn't worth it, started looking for other employment, and shit went downhill really fast. I had made plans to move the mare to a facility less than 5 minutes from me but the night before the transport was scheduled to pick her up I got an email from her saying that if I showed up with a trailer the next day I would be arrested for trespassing, and she was not allowing the mare to leave her property. I immediately called the police, and because it was a civil matter, not criminal, the were unable to do anything. I then talked to a local lawyer that specializes in equine law here in Az, and she pretty much echoed the same thing - I'd have to sue through civil small claims court.
So I went to the court. Court fees just to file the case would have amounted to well over $800, money I didn't have. And you can't get a waiver on civil fees like you can for divorce and child custody cases. I was sol, and had no other way to get her back.
That was last year, and July 31st marks the very last day I saw her in person.
This posting up above hit me pretty hard, and I sincerely hope that this amy either gets this resolved, or gets her horse back.
Now, let's hear your stories!
Too bad you don't live in NC. You have the right to get your property! For example, if your dog strays into the neighbor's yard you have the right to enter the neighbor's yard to retrieve your dog. At least here in NC you would have been able to get your Momma Girl for that place. As for Amy... I hope you get Smokey back. My friend learned that lesson the hard way as well and lost her Sammy boy. The next time she sold a horse on payments there was a contract stating that she had the right to repo said horse if payments were not made. (ie: a stopped check) In fact, I was in the process of hooking up trailer to go repo said horse when the people came by with a money order for the remaining amount. (they were originally 3 weeks overdue in payments) They still own said horse and enjoy him. But she doesn't play around anymore and neither do I.
ReplyDeleteCarla from NC
We sold a couple of horses under contract and agreed to let them go to the new home while payments were being made. Each month we had to contact them for payments. Each month the money came from somewhere else???
ReplyDeleteThen we got a phone call or email from a strange woman saying we needed to contact her about the horses...
Turns out, the buyer was under investigation for a lot of things. We emailed him about this woman and he said she is a former exgirlfriend with a grudge. We took it all with a grain of salt. When she had the livestock inspector from the AZ Department of Ag call us- all hell broke loose...
Dept of Ag personel had gone to the property and rounded up the 14 horses there. The two of ours, a couple of others that were also being purchased under contract and a few who had been donated to their organization...
We still had their papers because they had not been paid off yet, so these served as proof of ownership when we went to the feed lot where they were held, to pick them up. They didn't look half as bad as we expected, but not as good as we had hoped.
The buyer? Well the local police picked him up and were holding him for the Feds. No idea what the charges were for and I wasn't going to ask.
But I still have the email addy for the woman who tipped us off to all of it. I might drop her an email with a few photos of the one horse. Thanks that he is fat happy and living the good life at home with us where he will remain.
The one thing about it all though, he dunks his hay in the water. Never did it before, but he does now. A day or so later and the "alfalfa tea"- stinks to high hell. He now has a feed tub and we soak his hay at each feeding. It keeps him happy, the dork!
So sorry to hear about Momma Girl - I can't imagine why the local law enforcement wouldn't escort you to remove your property from her barn since you had proof the horse was under your ownership. =/
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I haven't been royally screwed over. But, 1.5yrs ago I did give one of my geldings away to someone who would help place him in a proper home. I had some issues with the gelding - I got kicked in the head by him in a fluke situation, and I was not able to move myself beyond that problem. Would have small anxiety attacks because I had lost my trust in reading his body language. He was a sweet horse, but definitely was not for amateurs. This lady sold him to a very nice woman as a CHILD SAFE horse to use with her young, beginner daughters. I stepped in, let her know his history, and she immediately returned the gelding - but the seller REFUSED to return the money paid. What a crock. People make me so made. I have no idea what happened to my gelding after that, the seller was very hush hush about his where abouts and he disappeared. I should have followed my gut and never put him in that situation, and for that I failed the horse.
C2J