News: Thorp - Cattle Stolen 1983

Contact: Kathleen E. Englebretson

Email: kathy@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Mattes, Patey

---Source: Marshfield News Herald (30 March 1983)

Thorp -- The Clark County Sheriff's Department is still investigating Sunday's theft of 35 head of cattle from Mattes Livestock Auction Market Inc., Thorp.

The bred heifers were apparently taken between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., Dan Patey, chief deputy, said this morning. They were valued at $28,000.

The heifers were owned by Phillip Mattes and were awaiting resale. A Mattes spokesman said they had been in the feedlot for several days. All the cattle, but one, were Holsteins.

Patey said the cattle were apparently loaded into a semitrailer truck at one of the facility's loading chutes and hauled away. They had all been accounted for Saturday night when they were last fed, but were missing Sunday morning when the next feeding was scheduled.

Trucks load and unload at the facility during morning and evening hours and an employee said that a truck loading cattle at night would not have seemed unusual to people driving by the facility located on County Trunk N.

The employee said the company has had a few isolated thefts before, but none of this size.

Patey said his department is making inquiries with other counties regarding "Suspicious dealings" regarding animal handling. He said a link between the Mattes thefts and recent major cattle thefts from livestock sales barns in Vernon and Richland counties are also being investigated.

"It appears that possibly it could be related to some other thefts that have been occurring in the southern part of the state," Patey said.