Rural crime is on the rise- More than sheep in hoodies
Rural crime - More than sheep in hoodies
Now I am a city boy at heart. I have a healthy respect for agriculture. I am quite fond of a good rib-eye steak, and I honestly could not respect the graft that goes into getting food from field to plate more if I tried. Also scared witless of horses. I happen to be in a position where I spend a lot of time looking at crime statistics and rural theft has always been an issue.
I understand why. Everything is expensive. Tractors, Machinery, trailers and horseboxes are all eye-wateringly expensive. Plus farms by their very design tend to be isolated. Although I struggle finding farms its clear the thieves don’t. Police response times are high due to underfunding and understaffing and the reality is that the farm where the theft is happening can be literally in the middle of nowhere.
As always, there are solutions, but quite often it comes down to price. Jeremy Clarkson highlights the problem brilliantly in season 1 of Clarksons farm. The profit margins are slim. Certainly, the last thing you need to be doing is fitting security systems. But the thing that gets missed is the cost of what happens should something be stolen. Downtime can be a nightmare. If you need a specific kind of machine to do a task, what happens If you wake up and its gone?
Tracking systems
It's been noticed that insurance companies are asking more and more for tracking systems to be fitted to equipment. I understand it. Generally, the immobilisation solutions can be more of a hindrance to the operator of the system but a well-fitted tracker can be invaluable; the odds of recovery increase, meaning that you have to deal with the insurance company for less time. And that is never a bad thing.
Horseboxes
It was shocking to me to see how expensive horse boxes are. The vehicles are by their very design, not used very often. This means they are often parked up in the same place for extended periods of time. Criminals love patterns. Its easy to see what you have if its parked up in plain sight. Typically, these are based on 3.5t vans and as such can have a wide range of security solutions. A canbus immobiliser such as the Ghost or a Scorpion X can be very effective. But when you pair this with a tracker such as the moving intelligence s7 battery powered unit, you have doubled down on your protection. When you have spent 50000 on a horsebox, an extra 700 to lock it down seems like a sensible precaution
Quad bikes
I had a quad bike as a kid, it was almost stolen. I mean I lived in a very rough part of the world at the time but they are desirable. Fitting a battery-powered tracker to it like the moving intelligence battery-powered unit is a good shout.
Trailers
Very few trailers mobilise electronic vehicle security systems. This is simple, really, because when the trailer is parked up it does not have its own battery source often. Again, a battery-powered moving intelligence unit increases your chances of getting the trailer back.
I think the point is that it doesn’t matter what you do but something needs to be done. The risk to your business should the wolf in the night visit is just far too high
