A Keys man stole a miniature goat. The owner says ‘Billy the Kidder’ came home drunk.
Billy the Kidder is a miniature goat who lives in the Florida Keys. He isn’t used to excitement. His interests include mowing yards and enjoying air-conditioning.
But on Thursday, the 4-year-old goat who stands about knee-high, went on an adventure. A Keys man stole Billy from a woman’s yard and took him for a spin around Big Pine Key.
At 5:12 p.m., the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a man passed out next to his bicycle with a goat along for the ride.
“I started laughing when they called me,” said Deputy Tom Fricke, a 28-year veteran of the sheriff’s office. He had to double check that he heard it right.
Fricke arrived at the Tom Thumb convenience store, 30662 Overseas Highway, to find a small goat tethered to a bike. Both were next to a man sleeping in the grass.
“He’s one of our local homeless drunks,” Fricke said.
No arrests were made because the owner, Cindy Cody, didn’t want to press charges. She just wanted back her goat, which she got two weeks ago.
She likes to call him Billy Bob Thornton.
Monroe County Fire Rescue also went to the scene, but said the man refused additional services, said county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood.
The sheriff’s office released the man. Fricke said he watched the goat-theft suspect take off on his bicycle. The goat owner’s friend brought Billy home to enjoy his grass and A/C again.
Cody, 62, a regular vendor at the local flea market, knows the man who took Billy. She has hired him to do odd jobs around her home for about 10 years.
Fricke said the man didn’t appear intoxicated, only sleeping. But Cody said there is more to the story.
She says Billy came home drunk.
“His eyes were so dilated yesterday,” Cody said Friday. “They didn’t look normal at all.”
Cody made some calls Thursday and was told the goat was used by several men as a prop for panhandling. Billy was gone from 11:45 a.m. until about 6 p.m.
“They were all over town with the goat and they made a crap load of money off the goat,” Cody said.
She took a photo of Billy sprawled out on the floor.
“He’s trying to make the ground stand still because he’s drunk,” Cody said.
“It was a little drunk,” said Sean McGrotty, the friend who volunteered to go looking for him when Cody called. “A little tipsy. They had been giving him beer.”
McGrotty picked up the goat, which is small enough to cradle in his arms, and placed him in his van for the ride home.
Billy was looking good on Friday, Cody said.
Cody said she wasn’t upset about the pet theft. Especially since Billy was back safe at home.
“It’s just a normal day.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 3:49 PM.
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