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FOUND!!!

www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17604639&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id= 596900&rfi=6

Couple to retrieve missing horse
By Cheryl Wade
12/18/2006

TITTABAWASSEE TOWNSHIP -- A family whose Arabian horse was stolen more than a week ago expects to have the animal back tonight.

Amy Flach said the horse, named Mecca, was trapped in a case of mistaken identity and a dispute between two parties. She and her family learned Sunday that the horse was safe in Zeeland, and they plan to travel there tonight and pick her up.

Tittabawassee Township Police Department Detective Robert Harken said a Zeeland man who has Mecca had been trying to locate a horse who had been missing for about two years. The Zeeland man came to the Flachs' Buck Road home to take what he thought was his, Harken said.

Police got the tip they needed when a Midland County woman, who once had the horse the Zeeland man was seeking, called the police after seeing media reports about the stolen horse, Harken said.

"She said 'I got rid of it a year ago,'" Harken said.

The dispute started when the Zeeland man leased the horse to the Midland County woman but didn't get his money, Harken said.

"He wanted the horse back but wasn't getting the horse back," Harken said. "So he came over to get it in the middle of the night, and he ended up at the wrong place."

Amy said Mecca's identity came to light when someone in Zeeland tried to ride her and was thrown through a fence. Amy's husband David had ridden Mecca several times, but the horse -- who's nervous by nature -- probably was agitated because of the strange place and unfamiliar people, Amy said. Mecca wasn't generally used as a riding horse, she added.

Since Mecca was stolen, the Flachs had searched for her through a website and called auction houses, slaughterhouses and veterinarians in hopes of finding her.

"We feel lighter, just really relieved, that she's in good hands," Amy said. And it was good to "know that it wasn't just a random act of ... crime."

Harken said the report of the stolen horse will go to the Saginaw County Prosecutor's Office but he has doubts about charges. For larceny to occur, the accused person must have the intent to steal something belonging to someone else. In this case, "the man was only trying to get his horse back," Harken said.


İMidland Daily News 2006