A stolen miniature Shetland foal has been reunited with its mother after being found more than 300 miles away from home.

Lucy, a two-month-old miniature Shetland pony, was taken from owners Jean and Pete Curd’s smallholding in Allet, Cornwall, sometime between the 11 and 12 July.

Jean was extremely concerned for the skewbald foal’s wellbeing as she was still reliant on her dam Nancy’s milk.

After weeks of worry, she has finally been returned home after a member of the public alerted the police to Lucy’s whereabouts.

“I have no idea why anyone would want to steal her,” said Jean.

“There was a strong chance she might not even survive because she was so young.

“If they had taken a bigger pony I might have understood it, but to take a tiny foal? I guess she was easily moveable.”

Appeal reaches over one million

More than one million people saw the social media appeal launched by Devon and Cornwall Police.

PC Lee Skinner and PC Lucy Wyatt from the force’s rural affairs unit explained the decision to use social media: “It was quite unusual for us to put something on social media like that.

“It’s the first time we have taken this media approach.

“We realised quite quickly that there was no huge amount of new inquiries we could follow physically.

“There was no CCTV, and we didn’t know much that we could follow up on, so the sergeant thought we should try something new.”

Anonymous tip off

Devon and Cornwall Police received an anonymous tip-off that Lucy had been sighted over 300 miles away in Hertfordshire.

Acting on the information, Hertfordshire Constabulary’s rural affairs unit used a drone to search a caravan park, where the foal was found on 21 August.

Officers (pictured top) seized the foal and she was transported back to Cornwall, arriving home by 11pm the same day.

Sgt Alex Winning of Hertfordshire Police’s rural operational support team was part of the task force that recovered Lucy.

“We were lucky enough to have a piece of anonymous intelligence come to us via Devon and Cornwall Police,” he said.

“We acted on it immediately, got a few officers and myself out to the site that had been identified and put a drone up above it to see if we could find Lucy.

“Very quickly we found her and identified her by her markings and size.

“She was in an OK condition, ever so slightly skinny and a little bit of a cough, but I was pleasantly surprised, bearing in mind she had been away from her mother for a month and wouldn’t have had milk and those nutrients.”

‘A callous theft’

PC Wyatt reflected: “We showed tenacity to resolve what was a callous theft that had such a big impact on Jean and Pete’s life.

“We’re glad to see Lucy back home where she belongs.”

Jean described the relief of the foal’s return.

“I can’t describe it, it’s absolutely wonderful,” she said. “It’s something we didn’t think would happen.

“We thought to start with, yes, she’ll be back, but as the weeks progressed, I think we lost hope.”

PC Lucy Wyatt called the result “an excellent outcome” to a “horrible situation”.

“I’ve been really surprised at how concerned people have been when they don’t even know Lucy,” added Jean.

“So many people have gone out of their way to try and find her.”

Main image courtesy of Herts Police

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