Countryside Crime

[Veem]

Our local sheep farmer called in this morning. It's a long time since we saw him so we had a good long chat. It's even longer since we had seen his flock turned out on any of his nearby pastures and we wondered if he had sold them as he is approaching retirement age. He hasn't sold them, but he's been keeping ewes and their lambs inside his barns more and more to avoid them being stolen! His flock is about 100 ewes and when they're lambing the numbers obviously rise until he sells the lambs on.

But over the past 4 or 5 years, he told us that it happens more regularly, that up to 10 sheep are stolen at a time. It isn't easy to keep a daily tally of how many sheep are in the flock. The gendarmes aren't interested unless he can give the date, time of day and details of any vehicles involved, so he's given up reporting to them. Other recent developments are that diesel is being stolen from his tractors - up to 400L at a time, and firewood disappears from his substantial woodstore.

A local beekeeper who had many, many hives throughout our little area, producing significant amounts of beautiful honey, is losing the actual hives to thieves.

Why do you suppose our quiet and hitherto safe part of Charente has so suddenly become subject to previously unheard of rural crimes?

[Bayleaf]

Wow, that is nasty. Too late in the day now I guess, but has he thought of putting up security cameras? Just more expense, I know, but it may pay off in the long run.

As for stealing bees? That's brave!

[Lori]

That takes some real effort. Do the sheep have identifying tags on their ears ? If the thefts are all from the same farmer (petrol and sheep), it's the same people. I'm pretty sure you can get locks for nearly all gas nozzles.

He needs cameras on the tractors and cameras in any areas where a vehicle could enter. We've put up one that has an app direct to our portable phone. It alerts us if there is any movement detected. Could be a pain for the farmer, depending how much land we're talking about, but he would know where his cameras were installed and would know where to go. Sets of cameras from Amazon can be had for a decent price.

Otherwise, are there tags that can be placed on the animals to track them ?

Seems like the only recourse against thieves.

I remember this happening a lot when we lived in Bédoin. Very bold thieves. Some emptied entire vineyards and cherry farms of their fruits in one night.

It probably is known to happen here too, but I know very few farmers here to ask. The ones I do know have never mentioned this type of thing.

[exile]

A sad observation, but have you seen the prices of lamb or mutton in the shops? It has been happening in the UK for quite a number of years - as well as fuel and equipment thefts.

The animals have ear tags for traceability reasons - food hygiene and animal welfare. However illegal slaughter in someone's shed and sale through a butcher who doesn't mind if the necessary tracking certificates are not available provided the price is right and the whole thing becomes very difficult to track.

The only thought I have is that the ear tags could have a tracking RFID embedded when at least you could track the tag. I am not sure that such tags exist though even if the technology would allow it without major increase in costs - RFID or similar tags can be had for just a few €uros.

[Blaze]

+1 Exile.
Sheep normally have one tag in each ear for traceability and normally a movement book holds a record of when sheep are moved from one place to another, other than from one field to another.
These tags are easily removed and replaced with other tags, just as microchips can be removed and replaced. Identification is much harder with sheep and cattle than, say, horses. That said, unless the thieves knew the sheep were chipped as well as being tagged, it could work. But then there is the cost involved ...

Sheep rustling has always gone on, but in a much smaller way than it is today. It's happening in the UK as well. The problem is, farmers often have parcels of land dotted around, not contiguous, so trying to keep an eye on them is very difficult. Fences are cut, even bulldozed and the gangs are very organised.
As far as farm machinery is concerned, much of it is kept in insecure conditions, not locked up, immobilised, with sometimes valuable equipment inside. That said, buildings are being broken into to get at vehicles inside : quads, tractors and trailers ... Farmers are beginning to set up security cameras, but if the gangs are hooded and masked, there is little hope of identifying them. It would take the police time to get to the farm, by which time the thieves will have gone.

The gendarmerie can't cope, they haven't got the manpower to patrol the farms. The gangs would merely wait until they had gone before jumping in.
With a lot of expensive equipment being used today, the temptation for thieves is enormous. I don't know how farmers are going to be able to cope and whether insurance companies will continue to pay out.

[MAD87]

It's a sad situation when folk who work their socks off in all weathers are robbed by lazy barstewards who take the easy way out. I've wondered in the last few months whether countryside (and other) crime is on the increase, but I think it's the scale of certtain crimes that's changed.

[Hotrodder]

If there wasn't an easy market for the cheap stolen items theft would not be so rife.

With regard to vehicles I did some quick research, various sources including ONS reports, the numbers of cars stolen are in the hundreds of thousands per year, and remarkably the number in France is nearly double that figure.

The question I put forward is: Why are the manufacturers unable to build in effective immobilisation systems?

[Blaze]

@ Mad - when you look back at when some of us first came to France, there was very little countryside crime. People didn't lock their doors and stuff could be left out without fear of it being stolen. This was not the case in the UK where trailers have always been at risk ....

All that has changed dramatically, possibly coinciding with the opening of the borders and free passage. The more up-market cars find their way east, as do tractors and farm machinery. You only have to look at the way agricultural machinery has changed in France in the last 30 years (as has farming generally) - if you visit former east bloc countries, you can understand the appeal of acquiring something that fallen off the back of a lorry .....

[MAD87]

@ Mad - when you look back at when some of us first came to France, there was very little countryside crime. People didn't lock their doors and stuff could be left out without fear of it being stolen.

Exactly! It seems to be an open market now for thieves.

[hughnique]

@ Mad - when you look back at when some of us first came to France, there was very little countryside crime. People didn't lock their doors and stuff could be left out without fear of it being stolen.

Exactly! It seems to be an open market now for thieves.

I have to agree, we used to leave the cars unlocked, as was the garage, workshop, and a host of other steal able items, with the theft of our Koi Carp and equipment, worth many hundreds if not thousands of euros, it has been a very bitter pill to swallow. The fact that we put forward two names of people we are pretty sure are involved and the absolute inefficiency of the local gendarmerie, who have made no effort whatsoever, yet still have plenty of time to sit on a local roundabout , three of them, pulling in motorists, money spinner. Now we are in a position of not sleeping, leaving security lights permanently on and having to look at security cameras being installed, more bloody expense.