![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/coverimages55700890-bbf3.jpg\")
\n\t\tGandalf and his companion Ryan (named after the actor Ryan Gosling) lived peacefully on a Kent pond until last week (Picture: Cover Media)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tGandalf and his companion Ryan (named after the actor Ryan Gosling) lived peacefully on a Kent pond until last week (Picture: Cover Media)<\/p>\n
What has happened to Gandalf the goose?<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the words on everybody\u2019s lips near Basted Millpond in Kent after the bird was allegedly stolen. <\/p>\n
A passerby claimed he saw someone bundle the bird into the boot of a car at about 7pm last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Since then there have been no clues to his whereabouts \u2013 and the local landlord has resorted to putting up a \u00a3400 reward. <\/p>\n
\u2018Everyone loves those geese,\u2019 Benjamin Mcconnachie, who is publican at The Plough in Basted, Kent, said. \u2018People come from Borough Green, Platt, Crouch and other villages to visit them, and bring their children.<\/p>\n
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Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/a> newsletter or get Breaking News<\/a> alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n \u2018Nothing like this has ever happened before. It\u2019s always been such a nice community.<\/p>\n \u2018This has left everybody very sad and upset. Whoever did this is the scum of the earth, and we need to catch them.\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t Benjamin, who has run the pub for 13 years, has put up the \u00a3400 reward for information leading to the conviction of the \u2018low-life\u2019 who took Gandalf.<\/p>\n The goose mysteriously appeared at Basted Millpond in Borough Green two years ago and is thought to have been released by someone who could no longer look after him.<\/p>\n He lived initially with a family of wild greylag geese but when they flew off, he was left all alone.<\/p>\n Geese are sociable creatures and Gandalf seemed to be going into a decline, \u2018moping about\u2019 and looking miserable. He is a Embden goose, which are too heavy to fly.<\/p>\n A local couple decided to buy him a companion and travelled to Norwich<\/a> to buy Ryan, named after Ryan Gosling. The pair have been inseparable until Gandalf\u2019s kidnapping. <\/p>\n A driver, who had stopped in a lay-by in Basted Lane, witnessed the incident and told villager Nigel Sheepwash that he had seen a black estate car pull up by the pond and take Gandalf.<\/p>\n \t\t Nigel had left to collect his wife from the train station at 6.50pm and spotted both geese in their regular place, but when he returned at about 7.20pm, one had gone, and he raised the alarm.<\/p>\n He began searching, then contacted the neighbours\u00a0who looked after the geese, to see if they had\u00a0removed one. They then called the police.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe van driver came down and told me what he had seen. Stupidly, I didn\u2019t take his contact details. I\u2019m kicking myself now.<\/p>\n \u201cAll he said was that he had seen something fly out of the passenger window, and then saw the passenger get out. He didn\u2019t even say if that was a man or a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n Benjamin said that a car had raced past his pub at speed that evening.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was doing 70 or 80mph, which is what brought my attention to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \t\t He checked his pub\u2019s CCTV and found an image of a dark-coloured estate car as it sped past at 7.01pm.<\/p>\n The incident has unleashed a torrent of both sadness and anger on social media<\/a>, where villagers have turned into sleuths to track down the villains.<\/p>\n Many have reposted the CCTV image of the car on the Facebook<\/a> pages of neighbouring villages in the hope that someone will be able to identify the thieves.<\/p>\n One of them, Julie Dervish, said: \u201cWe\u2019re all very upset. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s is a bit off the beaten track. It\u2019s 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.\u2019<\/p>\n The couple who bought Ryan as a companion for Gandalf were concerned that he too would go into a decline now left on his own. <\/p>\n So on Thursday, they travelled to Bournemouth<\/a> and got another goose, who has now been released at Basted Mill. His name is Gengoose Khan<\/p>\n \t\t They do not want to be identified, but one said: \u2018If a driver had hit a goose and killed it, stopped, and done the right thing, we would have been sad, but not angry.<\/p>\n \u2018But any deliberate act of violence against wildlife, as this seems to have been, is just deplorable.<\/p>\n \u2018We can\u2019t comprehend the mentality of the lowlife that would do such a thing.\u2019<\/p>\n Kent Police said it is investigating. <\/p>\n Basted Mill was a paper mill, dating from 1750. It was demolished in 1999, and the site was redeveloped with 29 houses by Crest housebuilders.<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/coverimages55700896-6013.jpg\")
\n\t\tA black car passing The Plough pub around the time of the incident (Picture: Cover Media)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/coverimages55700899-9919.jpg\")
\n\t\tVillagers were concerned that Ryan, pictured, would go into a decline if he was left on his own as geese are sociable creatures (Picture: Cover Media)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/coverimages55700894-3893.jpg\")
\n\t\tLandlord Benjamin Mcconnachie has put up a reward (Picture: Cover Media)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-db1d.jpg\")
\n\t\tRyan (right) now has a new companion, Gengoose Khan (Picture; Cover Media)<\/p>\n
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