500 cows stolen from a farm in a 'cattle heist' worth $1 million
It defies logistics, let alone logic.
New Zealand Police are investigating the theft of up to 500 milking cows from a farm in Ashburton, located approximately 90 kilometres south west of Christchurch.
It's a cumulative loss of nearly NZ$1 million (US$723,000), which is why the farmer is isn't too keen to talk about it according a friend.
"He's absolutely gobsmacked, and deeply embarrassed," a friend of the farmer, Willy Leferink, said. "If you had three-quarters of a million dollars go missing, you wouldn't want to talk about it either."
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Each cow is estimated to be worth NZ$1,500 (US$1,090) and police suspect that the cows would have been pinched over several bouts.
"It's unlikely the theft of hundreds of animals could be completed at once, and is more likely that multiple thefts could be carried out over a period of time," Senior Sergeant Scott Banfield said in a statement.
For the theft to occur, a trailer truck would need to be loaded 13 times for all of the cows to be moved, according to Leferink.
"There have to be a number of people involved," he said. "That's the biggest chance we have — of somebody cracking at some stage."
Each of the cows have an electronic identification tag, which could pose problems for the alleged thieves who may look to milk profits from their haul. No honest farmer would buy a cow without a tag, according to Leferink.
"We're feeling for the farmers and their staff that are directly involved and disgusted people would go to those lengths to ruin people's livelihoods for themselves," Federated Farmers mid-Canterbury president Michael Salvesen told Newshub.
As to where you'd hide 500 cows? That question is yet to be answered. In the meantime, police are telling to farmers to be extra cautious of their stock and the fencing around their properties, otherwise it could be a while 'till the cows come home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
