Koi thieves steal 30 Koi from pond in Belgium
Last Saturday, the owners of a pond in the Breevendreef in Bornem were startled by the absence of thirty of their Koi. A terrible discovery that was immediately reported to the police by the hobbyists. At first glance, the thieves do not appear to have left obvious marks. So the thieves must have been prepared. The perpetrators penetrated the garden behind the house, and surely it must have taken some time to complete this job.
After all, it is not so easy to catch Koi from a pond. You need nets anyway, a scoop net or perhaps a drag net. Furthermore, you must have a basin to transport the fish. Chances are the thieves in Bornem certainly had some savvy about Koi and their value. That is probably the biggest motivator for improperly removing the fish from someone else’s pond.
Also important: Koi thieves caught red-handed by surveillance camera
Sometimes this is done to order. Taking away someone’s home animals is obviously beneath contempt. It remains to be seen how qualified the thieves are as well and whether the fish – whether you see them again yourself or not – survive at all. A few thefts are reported every year, but I have the impression that it is much more common.
“The owner will certainly be heartbroken about it,” Ben Braspenning of the Court Supplier also said in an interview to VRT News. “It probably has the same emotional value to people as a dog or a cat.” RTV.be reports a value of about 30,000 euros. The Koi is also underestimated in statistics as a stolen animal. Its biggest drawback is that it does not bark or bite off. It also happened to Johan in 2016: “People should just keep their fingers off other people’s stuff. If I knew who they were I would not take them out of my pond like they did to my fish, but throw them in.”
Also read: Elderly couple robbed of 190 Koi; “All at once they take away your hobby”
I estimate that after the tropical bird and pedigree cats, the Koi is a much stolen animal. Of course it stands out when thirty Koi suddenly disappear, but when only a single fish is stolen people blame it on a heron or cat in almost all cases without ever having a clue. We recently wrote another article on why a camera system is invaluable in the Koi hobby.
sources: vrt.be , rtv.be, gva.be
