Is there any substance to the chalk marks on your house and dog stealing/robbery stuff?

[FlamingoAndJohn]

There are lots of posts on local Facebook pages about people driving around leaving chalk marks suggesting that the house has a dog worth stealing.
I don’t get the logic. If I wanted to rob a house why would I leave a chalk mark and potentially alert the owner. Why not just note it down or remember it.

Is there any truth to it at all?

I remember this did the rounds years ago.
Have no idea if it's true, but stealing 'desirable' dogs is definitely on the rise.

I’m not so sure.. But I have had it happen twice, once in my old house and in my current. Both different areas, one had a blue chalk line directly next to my front door and the other house had a chalk circle down to the alley way that just leads to my house. Washed them both off immediately. People just messing about..? Who knows but nothing ever happened, just left me paranoid for a good few weeks.

I remember hearing one about travellers and horses. Apparently the travellers would go into fields of horses and find a horse they wanted to steal. Then they would make a plait in the mane where it couldn’t be seen ie. underneath.
Then they would sneak into the field in the dark and find the horse they wanted by feeling for the plait in the mane, and steal it.

It just strikes me that you are far more likely to arouse suspicion and be seen put a chalk mark on a house than by just making a note of an address.

I don’t believe any of it. I live in an area with lots of horses and riders, never heard of any being stolen.

You'd just take a picture of the house on your phone or write down the address these days surely, rather than using chalk.

There was mass hysteria in our street when a young man in a hoody was spotted spraying marks onto the ground/trees outside random houses.

Pearls were clutched and curtains were twitched all weekend - until a week later when the council came round and cut down every tree that had a spray marking on it and planted saplings where the ground had been marked.

@Vickmo

You'd just take a picture of the house on your phone or write down the address these days surely, rather than using chalk.

Exactly. Pull up in the car. Look like to you texting or taking a call while actually taking a picture. Text picture to a friend if needed. Or Get out of car, walk to the house where you might well be seen, make some random ass chalk mark in a wall and still have to tell the mysterious third person that they need to go to Acacia Avenue. They then drive around slowly looking for the marks.

@SteelyPanther

I remember hearing one about travellers and horses. Apparently the travellers would go into fields of horses and find a horse they wanted to steal. Then they would make a plait in the mane where it couldn’t be seen ie. underneath. Then they would sneak into the field in the dark and find the horse they wanted by feeling for the plait in the mane, and steal it.

It would surely be far easier to use a torch!

A guess a torch would be more likely to raise suspicion.

@Gingerkittykat true It would take quite a long time to find any horse in a pitch black field. Suppose the same knackered old horse kept on coming back because it was enjoying the attention? "Are you sure we've got the right field here Fred, I've stroked hundreds of horses and still not found it."

no. I had a real struggle convincing someone that the blue marks on the grass outside my house were not a threatened dog theft. A)because I'd seen the guy from the water company do it to flag it up for a repair and b) because Satan will skate to work before a dog lives in this house.

Not sure about this but definite rise in dog thefts, particularly those kept outside so be careful! Sausage dogs, French Bulldogs and Spaniels are selling for a fortune!

Possibly it used to be a thing but people do have phones with cameras etc these days .
btw people driving around the country side peering up driveways and removing anything not tied down is definitely a thing.

I've heard that time travelling neer do wells from Victorian England have come to their future but not updated their communication techniques to the 21st century. They have no truck with new fangled reliable ways of letting their associates know where the rich pickings are but persist with the use of chalk and randomly walking round looking signs left by others.

Or .... It's an obvious load of bollocks

@SandysMam

Not sure about this but definite rise in dog thefts, particularly those kept outside so be careful! Sausage dogs, French Bulldogs and Spaniels are selling for a fortune!

Oh there is, no doubt about that. Someone locally broke into a boarding kennels and stole dogs. Just dreadful. But it’s the chalk marks I question.