Dastardly ducknapper!!

You are good with words ga so Perhaps a little, tongue in cheek, write up in the local press thanking everyone who helped in the search and explaining the long trip to Cambridge. There is no way the ducks could have been taken in good faith because why would the neighbour attempt to deny all knowledge if that had been the case?

I am very relieved the ducks have been returned rather than put in the pot which was how I thought your story would end

Absolutely agree with MiceElf. It was theft. I would have contacted the police if the family member of your neighbour had not driven back to your house from Cambridge to return the ducks pdq.

I would have also made it clear that I would also go to the police if the ducks were not alive and in good health when returned.

What awful people! My daughter who is 39 has never got over having her pet duckling eaten by a fox when she was about 6. I can't imagine what she would have done if someone had deliberately stolen it.
The little boy who refused to shut up sounds like my GS

Or, may make the parents think twice before involving their innocent children!

I can hardly believe that anyone would do that and take the ducks so far away - I was going to ask the question as to the quacking but GA you answered it. The behaviour of neither branch of the family was good.- glad they are safely back home.

Must say I don't really favour that option. The family has young children- who were clearly not responsible, so do we really want them to be bullied and shunned? What does it solve?

I suppose little one already has been really told off for telling the truth, poor thing.

Must say I don't really favour that option. The family has young children- who were clearly not responsible, so do we really want them to be bullied and shunned? What does it solve?

The fact that she made no attempt to find the owner of the ducks! Is she frightened of her husband/SIL or of the school - not my problem! What a despicable bunch.

My tack now would be to inform as many neighbours as possible with "you won't believe what I!m going to tell you" and seriously bad mouth this lot with the whole episode of theft, having to retrieve them and the attitude you had to deal with into the bargain!

We know there are people like this out there but it still shocks us when they surface.

Restrained? I think positively saintly to have gone back. I'd have graffiti'd their walls! To take the cat / ducks in in good faith and ignorance is one thing. To then lie to keep them, especially when a child's heart is breaking - unforgivable.

It's the lying and deceit I can'a abide- and by then we were all very stressed- with a little girl who had not slept for nights. I think I was very restrained actually- and as said, even offered to find them another cat to adopt (:

Reminds me of people who take lambs from the moors because they think they have been abandoned.
So glad the ducks returned home safely.

In which case, I totally agree. Thanks for clarifying ... and happy ducks...

Duck wars. Kitten wars. Goodness me. Wouldn't want to mess with you granjura
Thought the end of the story was going involve orange, so I guess that the ducks were reclaimed is quite surprising. Noticed that the geese that live on the river bank opposite my sister were not allowed out in the days just before xmas and reappeared on xmas day.
My DS once had ducks and some chickens in the garden. The whole lot were swiped one night. We suspected a resentful neighbour (long back story) - must have been someone who knew they were there, and we were not living somewhere where there were many passing pedestrians.
My 14 yr old friend has just had a sad loss - Henry the guinea pig. Her parents must have spent many hundreds of pounds on vets' bills during the course of his life. They thought they were getting a cheap pet.

One of the ducks is a runner duck and the pair are completely tame, obviously pets, and the house where they were initially taken is within close 'quacking' distance - so I would be more than a little surprised if the neighbours didn't have an idea that they were the ducks from the garden across the road.
We are pleased that they were taken in and didn't become a fox's dinner, but really shocked that no efforts at all were made to locate the owners - a single call to the police or RSPCA would have done the job as they were reported missing very quickly. There is a local animal shelter that would have taken them, but according to the neighbour his sister had wanted them as pets herself.
Anyway, today I'm just delighted that they're home and seeing my grandson so happy at the news was wonderful.

Well yes- but they may genuinely have believed the ducks had been abandonned (as happens with 10000s of pets at this time of year in particular) and were at risk- and genuinely wanted to give the poor things a home.

Stealing by finding is still theft. May they never rid the car of duck poo smell.

Agreed Iam64- but very sadly people abandon pets all the time- ducks included, for so many reasons (as said above they are very messy as adults)- this is why animal refuges are all full to the brim.

So I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt about good first intentions.

We lost our beloved Thomas when he was about 1 year old. He had a collar on with our name and address and detail. We searched high and low- asked everyone to keep a look out, put notices everywhere with photos, and how distressed our little girl was, etc, etc. 2 weeks later at a coffee morning, one womand I'd never met said the elderly couple across the road (about 3 streets down from us) had recently got a new young black cat ... I went and knocked at the door- and first of all she totally denied they had a new cat. I politely explained what had happened and gave a description, and told her her neighbour said they had a new cat. She said that yes, actually they did- but it wasn't at all as I described. I asked to look at him and she refused. Then I clocked Thomas's collar on the dresser at the side- I barged in and picked up the collar and asked where he was. She said I could not see it- by then I was not going to take no for an answer- and there he was, lying on the sofa, and very pleased to see me. I picked him up and went. The next day I went to see them and apologised for being brisk- and offered to find them a new kitten asap to help them out. Oh no, she said, we only want a black one with a white patch on the front, and your cat was perfect. I turned round and said that if they were racist, I couldn't help, and banged the door on my way out. Little old people, and butter would not melt. Thomas lived to 19 and was the best cat ever (from a litter of kittens born to ferral cat in the heating ducts of the South Staffs hospital).

From what I know about ducks, they're very messy creatures (lots of poo) so I dread to think what state their car would be in. We used to keep ducks.
Hoping your family get them back though - they're very entertaining as pets too.

granjura, my thoughts are that if these people easily caught the ducks, that should have been some indication they were pets. As for the lying neighbour, that is a shocker

What rotten neighbours !! surely they would have had some idea that the ducks where from nearby ? and the little boy : how true of the saying "out of the mouthes of babes" I'm so glad your little man is getting his pets back home to roost GA and that he enjoys his panto.

ga how could that woman lie so blatantly! And if the little boy hadn't blown her cover, you would have been none the wiser, and at that point that she knew, she was in effect covering up a theft. And it begs the question, why did she feel the need to conceal that the ducks had been taken? Makes me think they knew they were taking a chance by snatching them. Like you, I'd be hopping mad.

So glad it ended well, but must agree with many of the comments above!

If the ducks looked lost and distressed, and the weather bad- and no-one in the Devon family and circle of friends could adopt them- then I feel it was lovely for that person to take them back to their home, if they knew they could look after them well there. If they truly felt that would save their lives.

However, it was so so WRONG to lie, for so many reasons (including the example to the child)- and the person in CAmbridge should have apologised profusely and done everything possible to meet half-way! Beggars belief- but at least the ducks are safe and back home - so a happy ending.

Do some people have no shame? I would publicise it in both areas, local radio and TV too. Yes it is theft. Would they have been so cavalier if it had been a puppy? To inflict that sort of grief especially on a child is despicable.

The neighbour was setting her child a shocking example.