LIMESTONE Coast Police are calling on farmers to remain vigilant on their property and work with the authorities to put a stop to rural crime.
It follows a spate of criminal offending – particularly thefts – at rural properties in the Limestone Coast in recent weeks.
Inspector Campbell Hill said farming properties in the Limestone Coast have become an easy target for criminals looking to get their hands on any valuable machinery that might be left unattended.
He said police are getting at least one report of rural theft every day.
“It is one of the realities of policing in a regional area, but certainly in recent times we have experienced a spike in rural thefts,” Insp Hill said.
“There has been a large quantity of farming items stolen and we’re talking about things that understandably people working on farms have lying around the place.
“Unfortunately for those who are criminally-minded, those items are really easy for the picking.”
Insp Hill said there was not one particular item criminals are looking for with a variety of things stolen such as chainsaws, motorcycles, fuel and even stock.
“We are aware it is happening, but we really need the communities assistance to let us know where and when it is occurring so we can put our resources in the right places to catch the people responsible,” Insp Hill said.
“We have the resources to tackle it, but if we do not know about it, we cannot best utilise our resources we have to tackle it.”
While understanding that farmers work at a frenetic pace, Insp Hill encouraged those in the industry to take any preventative measures they could to reduce the incidence of crime.
“We are really mindful of telling people how to go about their business and we empathise with the position farmers are in, working long hours and using every bit of light they can,” he said.
“At the end of the day it really does come down to those really basic crime prevention principles.
“Basic things such as locking gates that are seldom used with thick chains and repairing damaged fences, which we know add to the time of their work, but could make all the difference when it comes to preventing crime.”
Farming properties have not been the only victims of petty theft, with Insp Hill revealing building sites had also become targets.
This includes workers at the new ALDI development who have had a range of tools stolen from the site in recent weeks.
“We have seen some instances of building site thefts and we obviously have some large infrastructure projects in the Mount Gambier central business district as we do across other townships in the Limestone Coast,” he said.
“We just encourage tradies to lock tools up, mark them, photograph them and maybe look at getting some remote security camera footage on site.”
