A neighborly feud allegedly appears to have come to a head when police said a Wyoming father-son duo took to bleaching the cattle of their neighbor, Philip Habeck, with an assortment of markings — including male genitalia — leading to felony-level property destruction charges.
Last month, criminal complaints filed in the Sundance Circuit Court in Wyoming alleged that 66-year-old Patrick Sean Carroll and his 34-year-old son Tucker Kye Carroll worked 189 heifers and six bulls through their facilities after the cattle had crossed onto their land. Along with a third potential accomplice, the three marked the cattle with a peroxide mix commonly used to mark bred cattle.
According to local news sources, the Crook County Sheriff’s Office received the complaint from the neighboring rancher on June 21, stating that a neighbor had bleached his cows.
The day before the incident, Habeck’s ranch hand had noticed that some of their cattle had crossed into Carroll’s pastures. When they went to move the cattle back in the next day, they couldn’t find the animals.
Interestingly, Habeck’s employee had helped the Carrolls brand cattle earlier that morning, leaving his and his daughter’s horses in their corrals. When they returned to pick up their horses, they found a corral full of their employer’s cattle that authorities said Carroll was marking with bleach.
“This has been coming for three years,” the elder Carroll told Habeck’s ranch hand, according to Cowboy State Daily. An affidavit written by Crook County Sheriff’s Deputy Alex Jessen indicates that Carroll told the man to leave so he wasn’t a part of the feud. The employee took photos and left with his horses.
The cattle were then found the next day back in Habeck’s pasture bearing a myriad of bleached markings, according to the affidavit, including “what appeared to be an attempt at drawing a penis on her ribs.”
On July 3, the deputy returned to the ranch with a Wyoming livestock investigator and two Wyoming brand inspectors. The brand inspectors verified that all the cattle belonged Habeck and bore bleach markings.
The markings were photographed, and according to the affidavit ranged from football-sized markings on the back to markings on the face and eyes, down the spine, and other phallic markings.
Thankfully, none of the cattle were injured by the bleaching mixture. But, while the markings may seem annoying (and even amusing to some), the cattle owner indicates that he had planned to market the heifers and that the defacing would decrease their value.
Rusty Williamson of Williamson Land and Livestock concurred with experience selling tens of thousands of bred heifers annually from Habeck’s program. He estimated that each bleached heifer’s value was decreased by $500 to $700 per head leading to potential loss of over $140,000.
After consulting with buyers, Williamson indicated that the heifers, whose value would have been closer to $2,600 per head, were now worth closer to about $1,850.
According to News Letter Journal, Patrick Sean Carroll faces two felony counts of property destruction and defacement, with maximum penalties of up to $10,000 fines and/or 10 years of incarceration.
Tucker Carroll faces two felony counts of property destruction and defacement and one felony count of aiding property destruction and defacement.
»Related: Texas man faces felony charges in cattle theft case
