when your passion and hobbies go too far I am speechless

[boss mare]

This has been the hot topic on all of the horse forums and even made it on the Wall Street Journal and other non-horse resources . The comptroller in Dixon Illinois was areested a few weeks ago for taking 53 million dollars since 1990 to fund her horse habit. She was really ramping it up the last 6 years She just pled not guilty...
She is well known in the Quarter Horse ( AQHA) show circles and is one of the leading owner/breeder of AQHA horses Google Rita Crundwell


This is a huge mess for the city of Dixon and for the horse world She has 311 horses many of them are World Champions a motor home that she paid 2.1 million for a 250K horse trailer 2 horse farms . The horses are going to have to be cared for on the tax payers dime until this goes therough the court system She had horses with trainers all over the US and those people are going to be hurt financially Her trucks, trailer the motor home have all been siezed but unlike horses they can be parked until this gets sorted out

I am very happy with my older, well maintained but very paid off truck and trailer and my one show horse I would not want to be in her shoes regaurdless of how many World Champion horses she has

[Tradd]

Just one more corrupt IL politician...she's just not in Cook County or Springfield!

And they only found out about it when she was on vacation and someone came across a document (a bank statement?) she didn't mean for them to see.

[boss mare]

Yes She went on an extended vacation ( 12 weeks to show horses) and her fill-in found out .... I guess the towns people thought she made her money with horses... Horse people know that there is no money in horses..... so they thought she had family money

[ctg492]

May be out of line or wrong, but I compared it to an addiction. (having just been through 6 months of my son in a treatment center for an addiction and there were gamblers/drug/to every type addiction there, things I did not know about even). It sounded to to like the habit or love turned to an addiction that had in her mind to be funded, like all of them. Justifying it in her mind to herself.
Gives new meaning to Horse Poor.

[Gregg]

Such a sad story. Even more so because there isn't a lot of hope for a happy ending, at least not any time soon. It's hard to know where feelings of inadequacy or greed or vanity leave off and addiction takes over. People obviously get so caught up in their own webs there is no escape. It seems like Bernie Madoff wasn't really trying to hurt anyone and this woman probably wasn't either. Not that that excuses their actions, but it does make it harder to understand and difficult to be compassionate.

[chanterelle]

This woman is said to have stolen from her friends, neighbors and wider community for years. If the figures are to believed, she stole, on the average, 2.5 million a year. In these difficult economic times, she regularly dismissed her community and the overall welfare of her city, which news reports state has an annual budget of only $8 to 9 million, for her personal gain....horses, property, jewelery etc.

Why is she being give any more consideration than a tweeker being caught with an ounce of rock? Why is one a sad situation and the other a social pariah??

There was a woman in Vermont who was just convicted of stealing $1.6 million from a small town power company, and another from a local church in my area who took a similar ammount from the parish funds over a number of years.
All the money was spent on the stuff of a lavish lifestyle...each one claiming addiction and low self esteem and requesting understanding and compassion when finally caught. In each case people felt sorry for them. I just don't get it.

[MrsClaus]

The former librarian in our tiny town goes on trial next month for stealing over $100,000 from our rural library district over the course of 2+ years. The residents don't understand how someone who was born and raised here could do this to the town. Some are angry and some are just confused and I'm sure some don't really care. I'd just like to know why.

I worked at the library with her many years ago and cannot believe she was stealing though in retrospect her and her family spent a great deal more money than her and her dh were making. They started a couple of businesses. One failed and I can't figure out how the other one is makes enough money to stay in business in our small town.

[Gregg]

In each case people felt sorry for them. I just don't get it.

I don't think there has to be a disconnect between compassion and the desire for justice. People who commit crimes should pay the penalty, but it does make sense to try to figure out why these people do the things they do. The more we understand about what motivates any kind of antisocial behavior the more we can do to correct the situation(s) that cause it. There are lots of people who end up in this kind of unfortunate situation by their own hand who I think should be locked up and have the key thrown away, but I can see value for all of us in look at what they did and how and why they did it.

[domestic goddess]

It seems that claims of addiction and low self-esteem have become the new "insanity" defense. I'm sure that some of these people just got caught up in their passion for a hobby, but I think other have willingly and thoughtfully decided to use this defense if they get caught doing the wrong thing. By all means, offer these folks all the help that is available, but don't be surprised if they don't make any real changes to their lives. They still need to be held accountable for their actions, and to make restitution where appropriate, but they can still be offered compassion and counselling or whatever treatment may be deemed effective. When someone is antisocial enough to steal from their friends, neighbors, relatives, complete strangers and government or church, there most definitely is a problem that needs to be addressed. Whether these people will actually want to make the changes in their lives that will be required for them to regain the trust of the public remains to be seen. I fear that in many cases, no real, lasting change will be made.

[Lainey]

I guess I'm surprised that in this computer age someone can get away with this, especially for so long. Where's the automated red flags? Where's the external auditors? Even something as simple as requiring 2 signatures on a checking account for bill-paying. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to institute these policies and prevent these thefts.

and I kind of agree with domestic goddess. I think there are truly people with addictions that will commit crimes to feed their habit, but I also think prisons have many thieves who have no mental illness, addiction, or other issue, but simply have the the desire to not have to work for a living and the ego to think they can get away with it.