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| Barbara Johnson from Columbus, Ohio, hopes people heed her advice and keep a close eye on their trailers. |
Barbara Johnson of Columbus, Ohio, swore a friend was playing a trick on her. But when she couldn’t find her trailer, she realized it was no prank.
“We were at the Redbud show here in Oklahoma City, two years ago,” Barbara said. “We walked out into the parking lot and it was gone. I thought it was a joke. Someone just moved my trailer or something. It was just gone.”
It was the last day of the show so Barbara had packed everything into the trailer the night before, prepared to leave for Ohio before the sun came up. The immediate issue was transporting the horses.
“We had three horses here and everyone else was already leaving … anyone that we had known from Ohio to trailer us back,” Barbara said. “They were getting ready to have another horse show here so the fairgrounds wanted us off pretty quick.”
Barbara searched the phone book for someone to haul the horses home. However, the cheapest price was $2,500. That was not an option.
“I walked over to Sundowner and picked out a trailer and my husband had to buy me a new trailer,” Barbara said. “I had no other choice at that point.”
Remember, the trailer was packed.
“We lost everything,” Barbara said. “I lost my favorite driving outfit. I lost all my hats. My daughter lost all her tack. We had nothing. The only thing I did not put in there were the horse health papers. There was at least $50,000 of equipment in there. You empty out your barn and put it in the trailer.”
Barbara filed a police report and searched high and low for her equipment. She thought the thief, or thieves, might deposit the trailer contents on the side of the road since they had the real prize. The police never found the trailer, and Barbara’s effort was in vain.
“I never heard a word from the police,” Barbara said. “My boys were still here, and we went down sideroads and freeways just kind of looking because we thought they would probably just ditch that stuff. But we never found anything.”
Barbara is much more cautious now. She bought a lock for the bumper and inserts wheel blocks on her trailer. She never lets it out of her sight and if she doesn’t have to unhitch, she doesn’t.
“You know everyone at a horse show, and I’m sure it was someone looking for a trailer,” Barbara said. “It happened here, and my trailer was in the front row right in the corner.”
The police told Barbara her trailer was probably in Mexico and thefts in this area have increased within the past several years. She wants everyone here to be aware of what happened to her so they don’t suffer the same fate.
“I learned a hard lesson,” Barbara said.
