Authorities investigating attempted molestation of horse at Tallahassee farm

State investigators are looking into what may be an attempted molestation of a horse in Tallahassee. 

The incident happened Saturday morning at a farm near Interstate 10 in northeast Talahassee, according to Tallahassee police. A message seeking comment was left with the owners. 

Raina Bacon — a 25-year-old farm manager — arrived around 7 a.m. She told the Tallahassee Democrat in an interview she began her day by feeding horses stabled in two barns. 

When Bacon got to the last horse, Lexington, she realized his head wasn't over the stall door waiting to be fed like most mornings. "I knew something was wrong," she said.

Bacon noticed Lexington's head and neck was tied to the stall by a rope. She rounded the corner and startled a middle-aged white man behind the horse, standing on an overturned bucket. The horse's back legs also had been bound, she said. 

He jumped down and crawled to the barn door as Bacon screamed at him: "I am not going to lie, I remember looking for a shovel," she recalled afterward. He eventually ran off. 

She called police, who later reported Lexington's back legs appeared to be swollen. 

The 3-year-old silver roan colored horse is the youngest on the farm, which typically stables upwards of 15 horses. "He is so sweet," Bacon said. "He'll walk up to anyone."

Within an hour, she went to the west end of the 37-acre property, where she saw the same man in a paddock with another horse. Bacon screamed at him again, leading him to hide behind a tree and then escape through the board fence surrounding the property. 

"I was physically shaking," Bacon said. "I was disgusted." There are no cameras on the property, according to the police report. A veterinarian later examined Lexington and told police the horse "looked fine."

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The veterinarian also said Bacon may have interrupted the man "before he figured out the logistics," according to the report. There was also no evidence of Lexington being drugged, police said. 

The case has been turned over to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, which is now heading the investigation, department spokesperson Erin Moffet said. 

Moffet said no further information will be provided because it is an active investigation. 

Bacon said she hopes "this guy is caught."

"I am scared for people who may be confronted by him, or those that have the realization — like I did — that there's crazy people like that real close to home," she added. 

How to help

• Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement at 800-342-5869.

Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.

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