The biggest case Ned Doubleday has solved started with the brazen theft of two trailers of livestock valued at more than $300,000.
After tracking down the trucks that were stolen from public saleyards to a loocation in the Snowy Mountans, the detective senior constable watched in bemused wonder as one thief fled into the wilderness.
“His getaway was short-lived after he decided to jump into the dam in the middle of winter,” Ned laughs of the memory.
“Luckily, there were a couple of fit highway patrol blokes who were able to run him down pretty easy. It became part of a long-winded investigation that led to the recovery of one million dollars worth of stolen vehicles from across several districts.”
COUNTRY CRIMES
Sometimes cracking a case for Ned can be as simple as arriving at a remote property and sensing something isn’t quite right, as happened during a recent stock theft investigation.
Ned was questioning a farm owner about stolen sheep when he noticed all of the flock had their ear tags cut out, despite having perfect holes pierced into their ears.
Spotting a single tag – used to identify livestock – on the ground near the suspect, Ned held back a smirk as the man casually stepped towards it and then covered it with his boot.
“He remained pretty confident throughout until my last question, which was, ‘Mate, what’s that tag underneath your foot?'” says Ned, 36.
“Turned out the tag belonged to the true owner of the sheep. Fortunately, the bloke decided to come clean about cutting the tags out of the sheep’s ears. The sheep were promptly returned to their rightful owner and he was charged.”
After kicking off his career in Western Sydney two decades ago, Ned relocated to Cooma before settling back into his home town of Wagga Wagga.
For the past decade he’s been part of the NSW Police Force Rural Crime Prevention Team.
The unit was established in late 2017 to focus on crimes taking place in the bush.
MAN’S BEST FRIEND
One of Ned’s favourite parts of his job is when he’s called up to hit the road with his horses and cattle dogs to go mustering for a week.
While travelling across the state to help farmers track down stolen livestock or check out areas plagued by illegal hunting issues, Ned spends his nights camping under the stars.
As he returns home to his own cattle farm, Ned considers himself a lucky bloke to do what he does.
“I get to combine what I love to do outside of work with my job,” he says.
“There is nothing better than hitting the road with your horses and dogs, knowing you have a good job ahead of you.”
Ned’s trusty sidekicks are also diligent and don’t demand high incomes!
“It’s amazing how hard they’ll work for you,” he says.
“They’re just happy to be out working with you, and all they want in return is for a good feed at the end of the day.”
NO HORSING AROUND
Tracking down criminals on horseback is in Detective Senior Constable Shelly Davidge’s blood.
After growing up around horses, she now spends her days mustering potentially stolen cattle. investgating firearm theft and searching for missing people in the Hunter Valley.
“I love that no matter where I may be required, I can down tools, pack my horse on my float with my swag and head off,” says Shelly, 46.
Shelly works alongside Detective Senior Constable Katie Platt.
From a missing horse discovered dead and buried to a shocking case of animal cruelty and putting two men who robbed a service station behind bars, Katie, 44, has cracked some major country crimes – even though she doesn’t have a rural background.
“I didn’t expect I would ever be taking DNA from cattle!” she laughs.
