From the 1st line of the story:

A Tracy man came home from vacation to discover 150 to 200 small koi fish vanished from a backyard pond. By James Utt.

150-200 . . . 150-200! how can anyone think it’s a good idea to keep that many fish in something so small? What is he thinking? A little further down in the story:

Someone must have stolen his fish.

The last line of the story, where he had just mentioned calling the sheriff:

Schubert has lived in his Tracy home for 10 years and said he has never had anything stolen before.

Then there is one other quote I’d like to point out:

“I’m just at a loss for words,” said Schubert, hunched over his fishless koi pond Monday. “It’s kind of comical, you know Who would do this”

Schubert said that despite his location near the countryside in southern Tracy, he has yet to spot any large predator, a raccoon or a fox for example, since he moved in.

Raccoon’s would have left physical evidence behind, foxes . . . I have yet to hear of such a thing. Do you pond experts know where I am going with this?

Especially when he talks about going to the sheriff . . .

It’s going to be tough to lock up the local Heron . . .

I still can not get over the size of the pond . . . and at that size it cant be very deep. A Heron would have stood there and just gorged himself-easiest meal of his/her life. I am really surprised that no one mentions any type of predator bird in this story.

But the size of that pond . . 150-200?
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*The photo is from the Tracy Press, in Tracy, CA.