COLDWATER, Ohio – Police in Ohio are investigating the theft of 64 Holstein calves worth about $2,000 apiece from a barn.

Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman said people working at livestock auction houses within a few hundred miles from where the thefts occurred are asked to report any similar-looking calves that might seem out of place or suspicious in some other fashion.

“We are receiving tips but we just haven’t had any solid success yet,” Timmerman said.

Timmerman said more than one person was likely involved in the thefts due to the number of animals taken and work involved in the theft. He said whoever’s responsible must be experienced at handling animals.

He said officers responding to the theft at Selhorst Farms discovered cattle gates left positioned to form a runway inside the barn for leading the 250-pound calves from their pens into a possible trailer outside with room to hold all the animals.

“It’s obvious that somebody has moved cattle before,” he said.

The thefts occurred sometime between 10 p.m. on May 2 and 6 a.m. on May 3 at a farm near Coldwater about two hours north of Cincinnati.

The farm raises calves from bottle feeding until they’re ready for delivery to another operation for finishing.

Timmerman said all the stolen calves were scheduled to go to another farm about 15 minutes away for finishing about a week after the thefts. They had already been weaned off the bottle and were eating grain.

Timmerman said the stolen calves, along with nearly 200 others similar in size, shared the barn with an unknown number of bottle-fed calves. They’re inside an old turkey barn converted at some point into a facility for housing calves.

Timmerman said the barn on the outside still looks like it’s made for turkeys, so, whoever stole them must have known there were calves inside.

“Who would have had knowledge that the calves were there and have the ability to get them out? Those are the things we’re running down,” he said.

Timmerman said other possibilities being looked at include taking the calves to sell quickly below market value to the owner of another finishing operation looking to rebuild their herd at a much lower cost.

He strongly believes any black-market sale in exchange for the calves happened a good distance from the close-knit community heavily into agriculture.

“You’re not going to put them in a barn near Mercer County. Everybody is going to know they’re not yours because all of the farmers around here know everybody,” he said.

Making the investigation more challenging is lack of evidence from any of the surveillance videos captured near the scene of the crime. There were also no distinguishable tire tracks on the ground outside the barn due to vehicle and/or foot traffic disturbing the surface prior to the arrival of officers.

“Our detectives are working on a lot of different angles to try to come up with suspects. It’s going to take us getting a good break,” he said.