Modern cattle rustlers update Wild West ways

Otto Dwaine Hendricks is a character out of the Old West transplanted to the 21st century, to hear the police tell it.

The Dade County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department says Hendricks is a cattle thief, responsible for making off with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of hamburgers on the hoof. But deputies say his tools don’t include lassoes or six-shooters.

He wields a checkbook, they say.

Hendricks, 50, bought dozens of head of cattle last November from the Lockwood Livestock Market. By the time the bank flagged the $57,000 check as bad, Hendricks was gone, along with the cows, deputies said.

“He drove up and I walked up to the gate, where he comes down there to me, and he says, ‘Boy! Them calves are A-1, ain’t they?’ And I said I thought they were pretty good,” said Lyle Beasley, whose farm sold Hendricks the cows through the livestock market.

Beasley said he lost $21,000 worth of cattle in the deal, money that he was supposed to be paid by the livestock market out of the $57,000 check. Jerry Study, the market’s owner, said he would make good on Beasley’s part of the deal.

“I know I got ripped,” Study said.

‘Cattle theft is alive and well’
Hendricks is just one of many examples of what law enforcement authorities and cattle industry representatives say is a modern revival of that stock character from old black-and-white Westerns: the cattle rustler.

“Cattle theft is alive and well,” said Hal Dumas, one of more than 20 investigators working across Texas and Oklahoma for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

An msnbc.com-NBC News special report Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. The following NBC stations contributed to this report: KFYR of Bismarck, N.D.; KOMU of Columbia, Mo.; KXAN of Austin, Texas; KYTV of Springfield, Mo.; WBBH of Fort Myers, Fla.; WOAI of San Antonio, Texas; and WSFA of Montgomery, Ala.

Thousands of head of cattle and millions of dollars’ worth of related equipment were stolen last year in the big cattle states of the Midwest and the Southwest, according to a report by the cattle raisers association. More than 6,400 cattle were snatched in Texas and Oklahoma alone, more than 2½ times the number in 2007.

Since the beginning of the year, numerous thefts of cattle have been reported across the country.

Twenty-one heifers were stolen from a pasture in Marion County, Kan. Twelve head of cattle were swiped from a farm in Squires, Mo., by rustlers who simply tore down a fence. Nearly 100 head of cattle were recovered in Alabama early last month in a 15-county undercover stolen property sting.

Authorities have reported thefts of multiple cattle in such far-flung locales as Ocala, Fla.; Tulpehocken Township, Pa.; and Tehama County, Calif.

Shoot to kill in Missouri?
By all accounts, Missouri is ground zero. Ranchers in the state, especially in the southwest corner, are attractive targets because of several factors: The area boasts prime land for lucrative beef cattle, it’s easy to slip the cattle across the border into Kansas or Arkansas, and the state has no law requiring ranchers to brand their herds, making tracking and recovery of stolen cattle much more difficult.

In February, 53 cows valued at more than $50,000 disappeared from the Poca Cala Ranch near Clever in southwest Missouri. According to Christian County sheriff’s deputies:

• The thieves knew exactly what they were looking for, targeting only Brahma crossbreed cows that are bred to produce rodeo livestock. Not a single bull was taken.
• They were able to case the farm ahead of time while evading security lights.
• They managed to pry open at least five gates and spirit the cows away undetected.

As the price of beef has risen since the late 1990s, hitting a retail high of more than $4.50 a pound last August, so has the sophistication of cattle thieves, the cattle raisers association said. Besides exploiting modern surveillance techniques, today’s cattle rustlers often anesthetize cattle with hypodermic darts, bring them down with trained dogs or herd their quarry with helicopters.

That’s why some Missouri lawmakers are trying to revive another artifact of the Old West, arguing that today’s ranchers need more firepower to respond.

Acknowledging that they’re reacting to the recent wave of cattle rustlings, 17 House members introduced the Missouri Right to Protection Act in February, which would allow property owners to shoot to kill anyone threatening them or their property. Current law allows such a response only inside the home or an automobile but not out of doors — where the cattle and the thieves are.

If passed, the bill would “make it more difficult for someone to come here and very quickly load cattle,” said Sally Angell, a member of the Missouri Beef Industry Council.

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