A beloved goose named Gandalf has been allegedly kidnapped from Basted Millpond in Kent, leaving his companion Ryan, named after actor Ryan Gosling, devastated. The incident occurred last Tuesday at around 7pm when a passerby reported seeing someone bundle the bird into the boot of a black estate car.
Community in Shock
Benjamin Mcconnachie, publican at The Plough in Basted, expressed the community's distress. 'Everyone loves those geese,' he said. 'People come from Borough Green, Platt, Crouch, and other villages to visit them, bringing their children. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It has always been such a nice community.' He has offered a £400 reward for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator, whom he called 'the scum of the earth.'
Gandalf's Story
Gandalf mysteriously appeared at the millpond two years ago, believed to have been released by someone who could no longer care for him. He initially lived with a family of wild greylag geese, but when they flew off, he was left alone. Geese are sociable animals, and Gandalf began to decline, 'moping about' and looking miserable. As an Embden goose, he is too heavy to fly.
A local couple decided to buy him a companion and traveled to Norwich to acquire Ryan, named after Ryan Gosling. The pair became inseparable until Gandalf's disappearance.
The Incident
A driver stopped in a lay-by on Basted Lane witnessed the theft and told villager Nigel Sheepwash that he saw a black estate car pull up by the pond and take Gandalf. Nigel had left to collect his wife from the train station at 6:50pm, spotting both geese in their usual spot. When he returned at about 7:20pm, one was gone. He began searching and contacted neighbors who look after the geese, then called the police.
'The van driver came down and told me what he had seen. Stupidly, I didn't take his contact details. I'm kicking myself now,' Nigel said. 'All he said was that he had seen something fly out of the passenger window, and then saw the passenger get out. He didn't even say if that was a man or a woman.'
Benjamin recalled a car racing past his pub at high speed that evening. 'He was doing 70 or 80mph, which is what brought my attention to it,' he said. He checked his pub's CCTV and found an image of a dark-colored estate car speeding past at 7:01pm.
Social Media Sleuths
The incident has sparked sadness and anger on social media, with villagers turning into sleuths to track down the thieves. Many have reposted the CCTV image on Facebook pages of neighboring villages, hoping someone can identify the car. Julie Dervish said, 'We're all very upset. I'm in my 50s now and live in Platt, but when my children were young, we used to visit Basted Mill all the time to see the wildlife. It's a bit off the beaten track. It's not the sort of place that you would casually pass, so the thieves must have visited and seen the geese before and planned the theft.'
A New Companion for Ryan
The couple who bought Ryan as a companion for Gandalf were concerned that he too would go into a decline now that he is alone. On Thursday, they traveled to Bournemouth and obtained another goose, named Gengoose Khan, who has been released at Basted Mill. The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, said, 'If a driver had hit a goose and killed it, stopped, and done the right thing, we would have been sad, but not angry. But any deliberate act of violence against wildlife, as this seems to have been, is just deplorable. We can't comprehend the mentality of the lowlife that would do such a thing.'
Kent Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident.
