Missile was found hitched up outside The Vegas Hotel.
(courtesy photo)
Rodeo performer and fantastic western artist Elyssa Leininger woke up Sunday morning to terrible news, her beloved horse Missile had been stolen, along with a saddle and tack from her trailer, from the pasture behind their home on King Avenue East. A horse-napper had opened the pasture gate, broken into the horse trailer, saddled up Missile, and led him off the property past the Leininger family’s house before jumping onto the horse’s back and riding him down Washington Street and across a couple of fields.
Leininger followed the tracks through the snow, one pair of boots alongside hoof prints before the thief mounted up, and called the Sheriff’s Office as well as some friends. Leininger and those friends posted about the horse rustling on Facebook while they continued the search, and that post blew up instantly. In less than an hour, it had been shared over 2,000 times and it seemed as if half of Billings was on the lookout for Missile. “Eventually someone commented on my post saying she saw someone had posted a photo on Facebook of a horse tied up at the Vegas Hotel. It was him!” Leininger said. Missile had been ridden about a mile and a half to the Vegas on S. 27th St. around 2am where he was found hitched up outside a stairwell with a motel trash can filled with water sitting next to him. A man had been seen walking through the property carrying a saddle to a room, but that didn’t seem to raise any alarms. This is Montana, after all, saddles can be very expensive and you wouldn’t want an expensive saddle to be stolen from you!
Unfortunately, by the time Leininger had recovered Missile from the Vegas, the man had already left with the saddle and bridle still in his possession. Even more unfortunate, the Vegas Hotel wasn’t able to help at all as all of their cameras are apparently dummy cameras, so they weren’t able to provide any video that could be used to identify the culprit.
At this point, the best Leininger was hoping for was to have her saddle turn up at a pawn shop where they might be able to point authorities toward the perpetrator. But the Billings Police caught a lucky break when they pulled a car over for suspicious activity and lo and behold, there in the backseat was the saddle! The people in the car said they had absolutely no idea how the saddle ended up in their vehicle, and they were released. While the police told Leininger that they could have charged them with possession of stolen goods and further investigated the horse-napping, the saddle would have had to be taken into evidence and may have been held for up to two years and it wasn’t worth the hassle.
While Leininger is ecstatic to have both Missile and her saddle back, she still wishes police would have followed through and found out who stole her horse and why those individuals had her saddle in their car. Since the thief knew enough about horses to steal the correct tack and put it on correctly before riding Missile away, it was apparent that they knew a thing or two about horses, and the fact that they didn’t even bring so much as a halter of their own makes Leininger believe it was a spur of the moment crime, albeit a strange one. She says there are some that don’t even believe the story, “Nothing really adds up about this whole thing,” Leininger said, “A lot of people think it’s fake because it’s just so weird. It’s a very Montana sort of thing to happen.”
Leininger later shared a Facebook post thanking the community for their help, saying, “I am still absolutely blown away and overwhelmed by the amount of support and help I received from the Billings and Western communities in my time of need. Thanks to the thousands of people, ranging from very good friends to complete strangers, who were willing to come together to help me, I was able to find my stolen horse. But he is not just a horse. He is thousands of hours, miles, tears, and heartaches. He is countless memories, stories, awards, and blessings. He is my heart, soul, wings, and love. He is Missile. Without him, I wouldn’t know some of the people who have made the biggest impacts on my life, and I certainly would not be who I am today.” While the culprit remains at large, at least Missile is back where he belongs. When asked if he could be of service in locating the man who stole him, all Missile said was, “Neigh.”
