Brittany Miller lost “her entire life” when her blue horse trailer was stolen from the Public Auction Yards in Billings, Montana, on Jan. 31.
Over a month later, she recovered her trailer and most of the $15,000-worth of items stored inside.
“I’ve got about 95% of my stuff back, including all the main things I needed,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
One of those items, a custom-made saddle, turned up in a pawn shop in Big Horn County, Montana. She’s eager to get it back, once she legally can.
“I won't get that one back until the end of the month,” she said. “They have to hold it for 30 days after the warrant was issued, then I'm able to get it back. It's just protocol.”
Ironically, the thing Miller cared the least about was the rusty, dented trailer. She was planning to trade it in for a new one when it was stolen.
Now, she’s sticking with the stolen trailer. A Montana body shop offered to give it some spic and span, and Miller said the owner said she’s not getting back until it’s “better than it was.”
“He's really helping me give it a good makeover,” she said.
Stolen Stuff
Miller’s trailer was stolen under the cover of darkness while it was parked overnight at the Public Auction Yards. As soon as she realized it was missing, Miller launched a very public campaign to find any leads to help her recover her stolen items.
The items inside included three custom saddles, bridle bits, and four custom snaffles.
"My entire life was in that trailer," she said. "I ride horses and work with cattle every day, so that stuff is essential when I’ve been on horseback for my job, every day for 10 years. It’s no different than wearing pants.”
Online Sleuths
Since she started posted about her trailer, people across Wyoming and Montana were contacting Miller about every blue horse trailer they saw.
One person reported that they say it traveling south on I-25 near Wheatland in early February.
“The Wyoming Highway Patrol was extremely helpful, dispatched that information to all the troopers, and confirmed that was not the correct trailer,” she said. “I felt really bad for everyone driving a blue horse trailer, because quite a few of them got pulled over.”
Found
The trailer was found on private property near Billings on Feb. 7. The windows and lock had been destroyed so the thieves could get inside and get at her gear.
Since then, Miller said her equipment has turned up “all over the place,” including the pawn shop in Big Horn County. Several potential suspects in the theft have been identified, but Miller didn’t want to share any additional information because several investigations are ongoing.
“I don’t know the details of how everything ended up everywhere,” she said. “They had to come from the same person, because it was all in my trailer.”
Miller’s still missing two bridles and a few saddle pads, but everything else has been recovered or accounted for. She said the return of every item makes her feel “a little bit back to normal.”
“I could probably replace what’s missing at the local store,” she said. “It sucks, because it adds up, but it’s a lot nicer to have the most important things back.”
“New To Me”
One of the things that helped Miller and others find her stolen trailer was its many defects. When it was stolen, the 1997 blue Featherlite trailer was covered in rust, and several of its lights weren’t working properly.
“That trailer does not like anything but a Ford," Miller said. "An eyewitness who saw it on the interstate (the night it was stolen) said she almost hit a blue trailer because the lights weren't on. I don't know if they did not plug my trailer lights, but the running lights or the taillights weren't working when they left the facility."
Miller has since dropped off the trailer at a body shop near Laurel. The owner reached out and offered to repair and improve her trailer after hearing about her plight.
“I just wanted the minor damage fixed, and he said it's not leaving until it’s better than it was,” she said. “I helped him grind off some rust and patch some holes. He’s done some welding that it needed, and we’ve got new paint and lights ordered. He's helping me give it a good makeover.”
Miller owns the trailer outright. While she’s not particularly attached to it, she took justifiable pride in acquiring it and ensuring it was locked and secure when it was unexpectedly stolen.
Its shabby condition, along with the damage caused by the thieves, aided its recovery. Many people identified her trailer because the damage and rust made it so distinctive.
She’s abandoned her plans to trade in the trailer for a new one, at least for the moment.
“Now that’s it’s going to get new paint and everything, I might create some new memories with it,” she said. “It’ll be new to me.”
Never Admitting Defeat
According to Miller, both she and her community have learned a lot from this incident. After publicizing the details of what happened, many of her friends and associates are upping their security.
“Billings is sold out of pitch locks,” she said. “A lot of people who have doubled down on their security, locks, and tack. People are getting GPS trackers for their trailers. My friends started branding their saddles, so that if something like this ever happened to them, they would have easily identifiable features on them.”
Miller said she received an overwhelming response from friends and strangers after she reported the theft. They offered to lend or give her saddles, bridles, and even trailers to right her wrong.
However, Miller politely declined every offer. She said doing so would have felt like “admitting defeat.”
“It's a weird concept to explain, but if I started accepting things from people, it was going to make me stop looking for my stuff,” she said. “By not accepting help from people, it kept me persistent on getting the rest of my stuff back and figuring out who did this.”
That determination has paid off, with nearly all her gear recovered and several suspects identified. She might not be getting a new horse trailer, but she’s unexpectedly developed a stronger attachment to her once-scorned, stolen trailer.
“I did resent this trailer for a very long time,” she said. “It was ugly, beat up, and needed to go down the road,” she said. “I was fully ready to get rid of it, but I’m going to keep it a bit longer.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
