HOUSTON – A beloved pony named Funky Monkey was stolen from his home early Tuesday morning but was found safe just a day later.
Cameras captured the pony being taken from his north Houston home. Fortunately, his family, with help from the community, tracked him down just a few miles away.
Vanessa Riley, who runs Peace, Love and Ponies, said Funky is part of a special program that provides free rides to children with autism and other disabilities.
“This is Funky Monkey. He is 15 years old. He has a terminal medical condition called Founder. You can tell he’s breathing kind of hard; that’s an indication of some pain,” Riley said.
When asked what founder is, she explained, “It’s like basically he has diabetes for ponies.”
Despite his condition, Funky’s easygoing nature made him a target.
“You think they took him because he’s so easygoing? They grabbed him because it would have been impossible to grab the other ones. You saw them earlier; did you get some footage of them running? So Funky Monkey was the lowest hanging fruit,” Riley said.
The theft happened around 3:45 a.m. The thieves used a back gate to get in, broke a lock on the fence, lifted it out of the concrete and dragged Funky about 100 feet behind a shopping center. He was caught on video being dragged past a restaurant and other businesses.
When Riley went out to check on him and the other ponies the next morning, Funky was missing. She quickly filed a police report and then took matters into her own hands.
She drove around the neighborhood, talking to anyone willing to listen. She also visited nearby businesses to ask them to check their security cameras.
“I asked every homeless person, every person sitting on the street. I knew something, knew something,” Riley said. “I had several people in the neighborhood saying, ‘We will find him, and we will get him back.’ For some reason, it struck the heartstrings of not just regular people, but the homeless community too.”
At 1 a.m., Riley got the tip she had been waiting for. Funky has been spotted near Airline and 610.
“We drove straight down to Airline from here, came over the bridge, and there was a tall African American man looking like a homeless man standing in the middle of the road doing this. So, somebody knew. I stopped in the middle of the street. I couldn’t believe it. I fell out of the truck actually, and my son and I just were looking around, and we saw Funky Monkey tied to the chain-link fence,” she said.
The touching reunion was captured in a photo showing Funky and Riley’s son sharing a beautiful moment after being apart for what felt like forever.
Now settling back in at home, Funky is safe.
When asked what she wanted to happen to those who took him, Riley said she wishes them no harm.
Instead, she hopes they get educated on what they did and what could have happened if she hadn’t found Funky so quickly,” she said.