Pigs Stolen While Family Sleeps

"415 pigs stolen while family sleeps" was one of the cut-lines for an online article at KCCI-TV this morning; followed by: "Investigators are asking for the public's help to find the thieves who took 415 pigs from an Iowa farm." I was immediately swept back to the summer of 1980.

The kids and I were living on Tuck Corner in Taylor County. August 3 was a typical lazy Sunday morning. We had celebrated Preston's 9th birthday the day before. Most visitors came to the side door on the south porch of the house, so I was really surprised when someone knocked at the front door on the west. The person knocking asked if he could use our phone. I was very hesitant to let him in. His clothes were dirty and he was very scruffy looking. He could tell I was hesitating so he told me a story about his friends leaving him at the Lenox Rodeo the night before. He claimed they had all been partying, got separated and they left him. Supposedly he had walked all night to get to our house which was about nine miles from Lenox. I felt sorry for him and let him use the phone. He made his phone call, said his friends would be there to pick him up in about two hours, and asked for a drink of water. Then he went out to sit on the bank and wait. I glanced out the window several times and he was still there. Around noon, finally,  he was gone.

I thought no more about the stranger until one afternoon a few days later a Taylor County Sheriff's car drove in and a deputy sheriff came to the door. Now what? He said someone had reported a stranger in our yard the past weekend and wondered if I knew anything about him. I told him that the guy had used our phone as well as the story he had told about being left at the rodeo Saturday night.
That was when we heard about a hog theft in the neighborhood the previous weekend. Someone had stolen  thirty-eight, 35 to 40 pound pigs from a farm northwest of Gravity. The Lenox Fire Department had responded to a call of an overturned pickup in a ditch and on fire around 4 a.m. Sunday. The missing pigs were in the back of the pickup, the location of which was about three miles from our house. The deputy took our statements, including a description of the man, thanked us and left.

Our next visit was from a young man driving a black Trans Am Firebird. He showed us an Iowa DCI badge and introduced himself as a member of the Field Operations Bureau assisting the sheriff's department in the investigation of a hog theft. Would we tell him what we knew about it? So, once again we gave our story about the guy using our phone and then waiting for his friends to pick him up. "Would I give my permission to have my phone records examined by the DCI?" the agent asked.
My affirmative answer led the kids and I on an interesting first hand experience with the law. The phone number the suspect had called was in Council Bluffs. The pickup used in the theft had been stolen in Council Bluffs. We were shown a photo and asked if we could identify it as the man we saw. We were all pretty sure, but not positive. Would we go with the deputy to Council Bluffs to view a line up? Heck yes. Not only did the kids get out of school, it was going to make a great story for them to tell their friends. AND we got to ride in a police car. (Did this contribute to Preston wanting to go into law enforcement as a career?)
The line up didn't happen - something about not having enough people for it. But we were treated to a tour of The Squirrel Cage - the old Pottawattamie county jail used from 1885 to 1969 - (You can read about it here.) as well as lunch with the agent and deputy. Weeks and then months passed before we heard any more. Finally I was asked to testify in court. It was not to be a jury trial, rather it would just be the accused, his attorney, the judge, the prosecutor, the deputy sheriff, DCI agent and myself.
The defendant looked very different than he had months before. His long hair was gone, he was clean-shaven and wore a dress shirt and slacks in place of the dirty tee shirt and jeans I had previously seen him in. "Was I sure this was the man who had used my phone?" I was fairly sure. "May I stand near him so I can compare heights?" I asked. He was the right height. But could I really testify for certain this was the same man? Or was I trusting what the agent had told me about him being the guy?

For the first time I thought, "What if he serves time because of what I say? He knows where we live. Will he seek retribution? And it's not just me; my 9-year old-son and 11-year-old daughter could also be in danger."
Very sobering thoughts. Again several months went by before I heard that the suspect had been released on a technicality. We moved to a different house. Eventually the whole matter faded into a memory....until it was reawakened by this morning's news line: "Pigs stolen while family sleeps...."