$11,000 reward

That's a lot of cattle to steal at one time, if they were stolen at one time...

Ouch, that's a quarter million dollar hit.

I'm kinda surprised that the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is only offering a paltry $1K reward. Looks like the rancher thought the $1000 was not enough motivation either and then kicked in his own $10K.

262 head is kinda hard to hide

Can they drive them into old Mexico like the good old days? How does this work?

That is a whole lot of cattle to make vanish.

Some of you guys that work and know cattle can answer this. How many young beef can you get on one of them cattle trucks?

Probably 75 or so of that size/ triple decker.

I'd be looking at the guys working for me.

I had a History Prof when I was at SFA that had a strict policy of only allowing make ups for missed exams in extreme circumstances.

One example was a guy that asked for a make up and when Dr Hines asked why he missed the exam the guy said he was in jail for cattle rustling (this was in the late '70s)
Dr Hines said he made a couple calls and sure enough the guy and a couple others had been caught trying to seal cattle. Hines said he figured that the guy was about to have bigger problems than a bad grade so he let him take a make up exam.

That's a lot of trucks full of cattle.

The truck cannot have a max. weight of more than 80,000 lbs. They can obtain an overweight permit but still cannot exceed 85,000 lbs. Not that a rustler would obey the law on that either. So at those weights about 80 head with a 36,000lb. tare weight. Even though Lipscomb County up here in the northern panhandle is pretty desolate you would think somebody would of seen something. Loading live cattle in a truck is no easy task and would take several Cowboys on horseback. I'm sure the Tx. Rangers are all over this and those guys going to Texoma planning on BBQ are starting to raise a few eyebrows.

I'm all hat.

Where was David Copperfield?

Probably already penned up, heading to the stockyards the next day or two. The thiefs got tipped off by one of the hands, 4-5 trucks show up. Loaded and gone in an hour.
Even if they weren't penned, you don't need cowboys. Shake a feed sack at them or open a gate and they'll come running from a mile away.

Do you have a boot in your AZZ?

They were reported stolen on the 18th, I wonder how long they'd been gone?

If they've been gone awhile, and if these folks had someone on the inside at JBS (Swift) in Cactus, those moo cows could have been slaughtered, packed, and be in grocery stores by now.

I'd be looking there, and then start looking at the sale barns in Oklahoma. Those brand inspectors are pretty good at their job.