The suspicious disappearance of a Japanese koi carp in a Maryland community has led residents to consider they’ve fallen victim to thieves.
In response to local law enforcement, three burglaries were reported in Howard County, a municipality in the Piedmont Plateau region of Maryland, and about 88 koi fish were lost in private garden ponds.
The suspected thefts took place over a three-month period, a Howard County Police Department public information officer wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.
Two of the potential fish break-ins occurred amongst residents of Columbia, a census-designated location in Howard County.
The last suspected break-in was reported to the Howard County Police Department on April 7, with an anonymous resident claiming to have lost about 20 koi between early February and early April.
In response to the Howard County Police Department, the primary resident of Columbia claims to have lost 50 koi fish on March 30, which was reported the identical day the suspected theft occurred.
A resident of Glenwood, an unincorporated community in Howard County, filed a report Feb. 15 and told Howard County Police that about 18 koi fish were missing.
The Howard County Police Department has not announced any suspects or released an estimate of the full value of the missing koi on the time of publication.
Details about a missing koi will be reported to the Howard County Police Department by phone at 410-313-STOP or by email at HCPDcrimetips@howardcountymd.gov.
Koi fish are a colourful variety of the Amur carp, which is a species of Eurasian fish that will be found in lakes and rivers throughout Europe and Asia.
In response to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, Japanese koi are prized ornamental fish that probably date back to the early nineteenth century.
Rice farmers are said to have domesticated the species, and Japanese koi have turn out to be one of the most well-liked ornamental freshwater fish in the world.
“The koi farming industry will be quite lucrative, and it’s rumored that individual show-quality koi are selling for a whole lot of hundreds of dollars,” the Smithsonian reported in a Japanese koi profile.
The grand master koi was apparently sold for $1.8 million in Japan on the 2017 All Japan Koi Show, as reported by several news outlets on the time.