Someone STOLE my ducklings!!

I moved my month old ducklings closer to the pond yesterday. To get them used to the area, I put them in a temporary dog crate kinda like this:

This morning, I went to check on them. THREE WERE MISSING!!
The door was latched.
No trace of anything.
Nothing.
Here’s a picture I took yesterday before I moved them:

Light grey mallard- gone
Crested pekin- gone
Mallard- gone
There is ABSOLUTELY NO way a predator got it or it squeezed through the bars.

AND GET THIS:
A couple days ago, three full grown pekin ducks appears by my pond. I had assumed someone didn’t need their pekin ducks and they wanted theirs to have a nice home. So, they dropped theirs off at our pond to join my full grown flock.

Maybe this is wrong. Maybe, they thought I took three of their ducks. So, they took three of mine? (Keep in mind my pond is next to the road) they may have noticed the three ducks? And came in the middle of the night to take three of my little caged up ones?

Idk but this is just so devastating

Is it a possibility that it was of a nearby neighbor? Think of this situation going off you suspicion:

Their ducks got lose and free ranged a bit too far. Seeing your pond, or even hearing your ducks, they came over and jumped in. Then your neighbor thought nothing of them escaping, but thought you stole them?

On a slight side note, if it was the owner of those other three, what if they came back for theirs, and grabbed yours not thinking or realizing that they're not theirs?

I don't really know. Have you contacted the police about someone stealing your birds yet?

Oh no! That's terrible. I am a chicken person, not a duck person, but if the ducks are gone, the cage was latched, and there weren't feathers all over the place to show there was some kind of struggle, then they were probably taken by some person.

I don't know what to tell you, maybe ask around to see if anyone has seen them?

If you had them in a crate near the road someone prolly thought they where free....

It may be the cage that prompted well-meaning "saving" by some passerby.
Or like Poultrybonkers suggested, someone thought they were being offered for free.

I'm so sorry! I hope you get them back.

SourRoses said:

It may be the cage that prompted well-meaning "saving" by some passerby.
Or like Poultrybonkers suggested, someone thought they were being offered for free.

Click to expand...

Wouldn’t they take all of them if they thought they were saving them though?

I would put up some posters saying you are missing them. Maybe if it was a mistake, the person will see the posters and realize they shouldn’t have taken them? I would also put somewhere on the posters that you found 3 Pekin ducks encase your thief thought you stole theirs first.

Oh on! I hope you get them back! I don’t know much about ducks but, like Sassy Hen said, if the cage was latched, it was probably a person. If nobody opened it up, I don’t know how else the ducks would have escaped. Good luck finding them! Again, hope you get the back safely.

Oh no i hope you get them back......

predator. that cage is NOT predator proof at all.