Two groups of Mathews residents were commended Tuesday by the Mathews County Board of Supervisors for their role in helping the sheriff’s office and animal control capture escaped livestock.

Sheriff Mark Barrick wrote in a report to the board that he had discovered five horses grazing at the Cardinal Storage Units at around 1:30 a.m. on July 24 when he stopped there for a security check.

He said that sheriff’s office dispatcher Rob Hudgins had called East River Road residents Robert and Tracy Respess to ask if the horses were theirs, and Tracy Respess had said no, but that she would meet the sheriff to help with the horses while her husband drove to Tick Neck Road to find out if the animals belonged to resident Keith Faulkner.

Pretty soon, both Respesses, their daughter Kate, and Keith Faulkner all showed up to help capture the horses, said Barrick. Tracy Respess and the sheriff drove to the homes of other nearby horse owners to find out to whom the horses belonged,...