Two major hog thefts leave authorities flummoxed

Investigators are asking for the public's help in solving two cases of hog theft in Minnesota.

About 600 pigs were stolen in Kandiyohi County in August. This month about 150 hogs disappeared from a Nicollet County farm.

Nicollet County sheriff's investigator Marc Chadderdon says he's looking for leads in the case.

"I'm asking the pork producers of Minnesota to notify law enforcement of anything that may be peculiar," he said. "We're looking for five semi loads of pigs, 175,000 pounds of animals here that don't just disappear."

"Somebody's selling more pigs than normal," Chadderdon said. "If there's any red flags that come up we'd like to have their names so we can check into it."

Chadderson says pork producers should check their barns to see if they're missing any hogs. The stolen animals were the right weight to be sold immediately to a processing plant.

Chadderdon says he's never seen such a large theft of farm animals in his 17 years in Nicollet County.