RANDOLPH — Brandiann Cornell and two friends bought 55 baby chickens July 9 from a farm in Chelsea. She housed the chicks in a repurposed compressor shed that was enclosed by a fence on the Route 14 property of the nonprofit organization she heads.
The following morning, her kids went to check on the baby birds before heading to summer camp. All 55 were gone.
Now, Vermont State Police are investigating.
Cornell, executive director of the Middle Branch Collaborative, told the Valley News that she and two friends had purchased the chicks when they were roughly three days old. They cost about $3.50 each, she said.
Hours after they got them home, the chicks were taken.
“It’s devastating,” Cornell said. “Our kids are devastated.”
Cornell said there were not “any signs of struggle” in the shed where she was keeping them, although “all someone would have had to do is just relatch it.”
Worried that varmints might have gone after the baby birds, Cornell set up catch-and-release traps around the shed “to rule out that it wasn’t any other wildlife.” That effort yielded only a small rodent.
“In order for rats to have taken them, you would have to have like a massive quantity,” she said. “There would be other signs of infestation, which … there’s not.”
“The matter is still under investigation,” Vermont State Police said in the news release.
“If you saw something, say something,” Brandiann Cornell said.
Detective Trooper Chayan Flores and Vermont State Police Spokesperson Adam Silverman were not immediately available on Thursday.
The chicks theft is categorized as petit larceny, a misdemeanor carrying a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine.
Police are encouraging anyone with information about the theft to contact Detective Trooper Flores at 802-234-9933 or submit an anonymous tip.
