Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings  (Read 4904 times)

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« on: January 04, 2019, 02:32:29 pm »
DavidandCollette mentioned loss of old Kubota tractor on SiN’s “What tractor do you have ...” thread.

I’m interesting in hearing about others’ experiences as regards theft (equipment, materials or live-stock).

I might expand this Rural crime thread/theme idc, but for now, I’m just interested in the details of any other members’ experiences of thievery from their small-holdings.

E.g. -  what was stolen;  was it worth much;  was it locked up and where/how;  was it stolen under your nose (i.e. do you live on your small-holding);  did you have alarms, cctv etc;  and so on ...

 

 

Rupert the bear

  • Joined Jun 2015
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 10:14:39 pm »
I've had fuel stolen from the tractor tank, knew the offender who later in the year dealt with by HMRC. small tools a diesel injector pressure tester,food from outside freezer house , haylage and straw, apart from the last two all locked up. But the amount of visitors " we're lost" but have a need to look around along with the Caravan Utilizing Nomadic Travelers who were quite blatent in searching around, when challenged "we're looking for scrap , thats a nice dug sir , whats the weight of the tractor " etc etc .
So we invested in CCTV with anpr capability, motion detection, this has proven to be an eye opener, even some delivery people like a good nose about. The CCTV is quite overt and its effectiveness is well known as some have found out.  :innocent:  .
I think if its well known that you have security,especially big black angry dogs it helps deterring the unwanted.

Sporadic gunfire appears to help too !


CarolineJ

  • Joined Dec 2015
  • North coast of Scotland
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2019, 11:22:26 am »
We're not too bad here, I suppose because everybody knows everybody so if there are strangers roaming about on the sniff for stuff, word gets round very fast.  The only problem we do have is heating oil theft.  Everybody knows who takes it (people have been known to greet them with 'How's the oil business going?' and get a cheery, 'Fine, thanks!' in return), but they've never been caught at it yet.  I've not had my tank emptied in 10 years of living here, though a couple of neighbours have been done.

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2019, 01:49:42 pm »
One of our reasons for leaving England (Staffordshire) was the staggering level of theft. Initially it was a row of leeks, but then escalated.

The first thing was our rotorvator, which wasn't locked up but well buried amongst other stuff. I noticed a week earlier that things may have been moved slightly, as if someone was nosing about, but the area seemed secure with only one gravel drive entrance between houses and the machine was very heavy. It was the only theft we bothered to report and it was found by a school caretaker about a mile away, dumped in a hedgerow.

Our small petrol lawnmower was taken. It was in a locked shed, the door of which was smashed to bypass the heavy-duty padlock. They  forgot to take the grass box, which I then removed and someone definitely came back the next night, presumably to collect it.


The list of minor stuff taken is ridiculous. Two antique doors, 5 railway sleepers, 100 concrete blocks, the entire crop of fruit (apples, pears, plums), fruit canes, compost (the piles in the garden)- that's what I can remember! Didn't report any of them as I was advised the information can be accessed and would obstruct the sale of our house. At some stage someone tried to dismantle one of the chicken coops which, fortunately, was unoccupied.


One neighbour had a £100 padlock and chain stolen. He left it on the gate and was away just 5 minutes, but the crazy thing was the padlock was clipped shut and there was no key!


All this rendered the whole smallholding exercise pointless for us. We spent a great deal of our time unlocking and locking padlocks! We have a box full of them in the garage, now unused.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2019, 05:38:58 pm »
Compost!?!? Seriously!? :o
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2019, 05:59:57 pm »
I've had fuel stolen from the tractor tank, knew the offender who later in the year dealt with by HMRC. small tools a diesel injector pressure tester,food from outside freezer house , haylage and straw, apart from the last two all locked up. But the amount of visitors " we're lost" but have a need to look around along with the Caravan Utilizing Nomadic Travelers who were quite blatent in searching around, when challenged "we're looking for scrap , thats a nice dug sir , whats the weight of the tractor " etc etc .
So we invested in CCTV with anpr capability, motion detection, this has proven to be an eye opener, even some delivery people like a good nose about. The CCTV is quite overt and its effectiveness is well known as some have found out.  :innocent:  .
I think if its well known that you have security,especially big black angry dogs it helps deterring the unwanted.

Sporadic gunfire appears to help too !



Not happened to me yet, but I know other folk who have received the "we're lost" response when intruders were found checking things out!   

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2019, 10:32:22 pm »
Take care of information you give out.  Someone we know recently advertised a machine on gumtree and that very night a thief attempted to break into his storage area. Apparently they had found his address by interrogating the mobile phone pic he had used for the advert to find his GPS position.  It sounds fantastical to me but maybe it can be done  :thinking:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2019, 11:44:36 pm »
Reality is that a determined thief will succeed and so will an uncaring tow-rag. CCTV proved useless when i was in London. When the perpetrators showed faces to the CCTV then Police still couldn't be bothered to try and identify them and mostly they wore hoodies anyway. Simple smash and enter was their way to go but it takes little more determination to appear with a petrol driven disc cutter and render most defences useless.
A cross bow or shotgun and claim that you were in fear of your life is likely the way to go

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2019, 04:55:22 pm »
Reality is that a determined thief will succeed and so will an uncaring tow-rag. .....


You are almost certainly right pgkevet. However:

I obviously tempted fate with this thread.  I've experienced another attempted break-in at home (i.e. not on my bit of land).  As reported on another thread, the garden shed has been checked-out recently, but now someone is testing the house defences also:  lower ground-floor door lock/s have been "tested" with a screw-driver (or some such tool).  They didn't get in. 
I'm not absolutely sure whether it was night-time or day-time attempt:  I only noticed the door damage when returning from a day-time trip out, but might have been there when I went out and I just didn't register.   

Some little sh*t is, it would seem, checking me out:  so far without much success, but obviously I'm starting to think about upping house security. 
« Last Edit: January 08, 2019, 04:57:28 pm by arobwk »

Maysie

  • Joined Jan 2018
  • Herefordshire/Shropshire Border
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2019, 02:12:18 pm »
I find reading this thread really quite sad. 

I guess I am just old fashioned, maybe with rose-tinted glasses or whatever, but I still like to think that (nearly) everyone is nice.  The problem nowadays is that there seems to be an ever degrading lack of respect for other people generally.  Sad times.

I still live by the ethic that we should treat others as we expect to be treated ourselves.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2019, 02:38:25 pm »
Cool. Since after reading this thread I expect to have my tractor nicked* does that mean I can come round and steal yours?  ;D


* Note to wouldbe thieves reading this thread - I don't own a tractor#
# Unless I pay Maysie a visit first of course.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Maysie

  • Joined Jan 2018
  • Herefordshire/Shropshire Border
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #11 on: January 10, 2019, 03:10:35 pm »
No tractor here either.....
 :thumbsup:

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #12 on: January 10, 2019, 05:23:44 pm »
Somebody else got there before me, I see  >:( .
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Perris

  • Joined Mar 2017
  • Gower
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2019, 06:12:35 pm »
are geese as good guards as I've been led to believe? And do they perform as deterrents or alarms or other?

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Rural crime - theft from small-holdings
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2019, 12:13:56 am »
My first experience of geese was being chased by a flock of them when I was collecting ponies from a field and got too near the house next door. I've avoided geese ever since and if I ever considered robbing someone, geese would definitely deter me.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS