Enumclaw woman stole baby goats from farm, documents allege
If you take two baby goats that don’t belong to you, is it kidnapping?
No, but it is livestock theft.
A 40-year-old Enumclaw woman was arraigned Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court on charges of second-degree livestock theft and obstructing a police officer.
She was released on her own recognizance.
According to charging documents:
The woman went to a farm in the 14300 block of Bingham Avenue East east of Parkland on Feb. 12 to look at an item for sale online. She brought her small son, and stayed for two hours while her husband went to a gun show.
The farmer had two female Boer goats, each barely 2 weeks old, which had moved to the barn from the house that day.
The boy played with the baby goats, which weighed about 5 pounds and were being bottle-fed. The woman and her son then left.
The farmer went to the barn the next morning to feed the goats, and nothing was amiss. But by the night feeding, the goats were gone.
Other than the farmer and her workers, the woman was the only person who knew the goats were in the barn.
After the farmer contacted Enumclaw police about the missing goats, a detective contacted a mutual friend of the woman, who asked her to call police about the incident.
The woman at first denied having the goats — she has only a donkey and chickens — but then told her friend she had just bought goats off the internet.
The mutual friend told police, and the detective contacted a neighbor of the woman. She said her sons said there were two bottle-fed baby goats at the woman’s house.
The neighbor also heard from the woman’s father-in-law, who said two goats were in the woman’s garage.
On March 1, the father-in-law came to police headquarters and told the detective the woman took the goats.
The goats ended up at her parents’ house in Kent, where the father-in-law picked them up and drove them back to Enumclaw for police.
The woman said she was given the goats by a ranch employee who since joined the Air Force. Other employees at the ranch debunked that, and said the woman was obsessed with the baby goats.
Because the father-in-law cooperated with police, the woman told him he no longer can see his grandchildren.
Kenny Ocker: 253-597-8627, @KennyOcker
This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Enumclaw woman stole baby goats from farm, documents allege."