Mystery solved

After the whole trap incident, we have been busy trying to track down who the trapper was. First we called the land owner, but he said that he had no idea and that he didn't want any trapping going on, on his land. We knew that the trapper drove a green Toyota truck that had a black camper shell on it, but that was about all. So we pondered what our next move should be when Miss Jennifer, Peaches' owner, called to tell us that she had just been talking to a man who had been setting traps in the 98 acres! After a bit more talking we found out that it was indeed the same guy. Miss Jennifer had come by our house yesterday to take Peaches to the county fairgrounds so she could do some riding. As she was leaving, a man driving a green Toyota truck stopped and asked her if she knew who lived at our house. He told her that he had been hired to set traps for bobcats and coyotes and he found that one of the traps had been sprung but the catch was stolen; so he thought that we must have taken his prize (it was the trap that Copper was in).

She told him that she didn't know anything about it so he left.

This morning, after the phone call from Miss Jennifer, we started looking through the phone book and asking the neighbors to see if they knew who he might be. No luck.

So dad, Emily and I went back to the area with the trap to look for clues. When we got there, we first noticed that the trap was gone, along with the bait. However there was what looked like a receipt that was torn into shreds and sprinkled around the trap area. a few feet away we also found a piece of black mesh that must have been used for the trap. We were heading down back towards home when we saw a green Toyota come up into the 98 acres, heading right towards us.

Believe it or not it was the trapper. Dad struck a conversation up with him and the answers we got were suprising. As it turns out, he was on the wrong land, he thought the 98 acres still belonged to somebody else and thought that he had permission to trap here. He's a liscensed trapper and frequently traps bobcats for scientists to study. He was trying to get a bobcat that had been livestock worrying and he was also on the look out for coyotes. He was extremely sorry for everything and kept on asking if there was anything he could do to make up for the trouble he had caused. He was on his way up to take down the other traps that he had set and then moving them to the correct property. We told him that he didn't have to do anything for us. We were just relieved that he was moving the traps and would then be on his way.

When we got home, Emily and I put the pieces of paper together to see what it said. It was merely a receipt from the Sheridan farm store for some plant mix; but still, it was fun playing Nancy Drew. ;D