DENVER (KDVR) — A family in town for the National Western Stock Show had their truck, trailer and show pigs stolen over the weekend.

The family parked their truck and trailer at the Comfort Suites on North Tower Road. They last saw it around 8 p.m. Saturday. They realized everything was missing at around 8:23 a.m. Sunday.

Thankfully, the pigs and the trailer were located by DPD in Commerce City early Tuesday morning. Towle said the pigs were a little hungry but were otherwise OK.

State representatives told FOX31, cases like this stress the importance of new legislation around vehicle thefts in Colorado. 

“The National Western Stock Show is a capstone event for the state of Colorado and when we can’t keep that safe, that’s the time when we really have to sit up and say, ‘we’ve got a problem here,’” District 48 Rep. Gabe Evans said.

“There’s legislation coming this year that is going to treat a car as more a method to move freely to go to work, go to the doctor, go take your kids to school, go shopping so it doesn’t really reflect the value of the car so much as it reflects the fact that this is your freedom to move around your community,” said Evans.

Currently, the law states stealing a car valued at less than $2,000 is treated as a misdemeanor. For cars worth more, the crime is a felony.

Boulder’s District Attorney and Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice member Michael Dougherty shared the following statement on FOX31 about this theft:

“Colorado continues to suffer from an incredibly concerning spike in auto thefts. When a person’s car or truck is stolen, it has a devastating impact on them and their families. Colorado must take steps to ensure law enforcement has the tools and resources to solve auto thefts, as well as strengthen our sentencing laws. For example, the Legislature will, hopefully, remove the value thresholds that set sentencing ranges based on the value of a car. There will be legislation introduced this session and it will be a much-needed improvement.”