The Goat Riders and the Chapel of Maasmechelen

The goat riders of Maasmechelen were a unique gang. To avoid suspicion, they regularly attended confession and communion. The priest knew them as pious men who came to church faithfully. No one could suspect that these ’devout’ men were committing robberies at night.

But the goat riders needed a secret meeting place where they could plan their nocturnal raids. In the village of Meeswijk, part of Maasmechelen, there stood a small chapel that caught their eye.

One day, the gang leader asked an old woman living near the chapel if he could borrow the key. “I want to pray there,” he told her. The woman, believing him to be a pious man, unsuspectingly gave him the key.

But instead of only praying, the robber secretly made a duplicate of the key. Now the entire gang could enter at any time. In the evenings they would gather in the chapel, discussing the names of their next victims and planning their raids.

The goat riders wrote threatening letters to wealthy people, demanding money. Those who refused would be murdered. When money was laid out, they sent small boys to collect it. One day, some watchmen hid in a tree near the money that had been left for the goat riders.

Shortly after, a man came by with a wheelbarrow carrying a wooden chest. The man stopped briefly at the place where the money lay, then continued on. In reality, a small boy sat in the false bottom of the wheelbarrow collecting the money. In this way, the goat riders employed cunning methods to carry out their robberies.