Where's the beef? Cattle rustlers know

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FORT WORTH, Texas -- It's not quite like the olden times in Texas, when cattle rustlers were hunted down by sheriffs' posses and strung up in the nearest oak tree.

Times have changed, but almost every day at one of the state's 119 auction markets, stolen cattle are sold. The rustlers' take for the day may be as much as $10,000.

Some law enforcement officials claim cattle thievery is on the rise because beef prices have steadily risen. Others claim the increase stems from the profit margin the rustlers enjoy. Still, others point to the ease with which many thieves can get rid of their stash -- often just as easy as selling a stolen car to a chop shop or a color TV to a pawnshop.

"These crooks who are stealing them don't have much of any overhead," said Hal Dumas, a regional supervisor for a statewide organization that tracks cattle rustling and other theft from ranchers. "All it costs them usually is the gas it takes to takes them to haul the animals to an auction somewhere."

Mr. Dumas, 53, works for a Fort Worth-based organization called the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), which operates a full-time cadre of investigators -- often called "cattle rangers."

Mr. Dumas lives in Franklin and is responsible for overseeing cattle-theft investigations in 42 central and East Texas counties, where about 25 percent of Texas' cattle are raised.

There always are several such crimes actively being investigated, said Mr. Dumas.

One of the biggest rustling operations, he recalled, recently was broken up near Houston, where a man who had his own herd stole about 200 head of cattle before TSCRA investigators and local cops found some stolen branded cattle mixed with the rustler's own cattle in his pasture.

Mr. Dumas said the Houston rustler operated in plain sight, but because residents in big cities often don't pay much attention to what others are doing, this culprit got away with it for many months.

"A thousand people probably saw him stealing them, but nobody paid any attention," said Mr. Dumas.