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Reward tripled for CALM's missing pony
| Thursday, Mar 15 2007 10:50 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Mar 15 2007 11:08 PM
Just like in an auction, the reward money for "Thomas" the pony has tripled -- to $7,500.
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Thomas, a 15-year-old horse, was stolen from CALM.
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On Thursday, Pete Hamlet Plumbing Inc. donated $5,000 to the reward fund to track down the 15-year-old pony, which was stolen from the Californian Living Museum on Feb. 22.
"We're animal lovers and feel bad that this has happened and that this can happen," Pete Hamlet Plumbing owner Allison Fanucci said in a statement.
"It's a sad situation. We didn't need a reason to make the reward donation other than we can because we love animals."
"Isn't it something?" said museum and zoo curator Lana Fain. "Everyone cares about this little guy."
The Kern County Sheriff Department's rural crimes unit is still investigating the theft, and followed up on at least two leads in the past week, Fain said.
Fain accompanied deputies Wednesday to a stable where a man told them he had just bought a pony that looked like Thomas.
She admitted her heart went aflutter when she first saw "Thomas' twin," as she called it.
But after inspecting his hoofs and facial structure, she and other zoo officials concluded it wasn't Thomas.
Fain said she asked the owner what a pony could fetch in an auction. His reply: $500.
But even though the reward could theoretically buy 15 ponies, Thomas is priceless, Fain said.
CALM is a combination zoo, botanical garden and natural history museum that houses native California animals that because of injury or abandonment can no longer survive in their natural habitat.
People with information about Thomas are encouraged to call the Kern County Sheriff’s Department at 392-4367, or CALM at 872-2256.