Alas, no escape from crime in the countryside
WELL, a big thanks to the guys who dumped a couple of tonnes of garden waste across the bottom of our farm road earlier in the week.
Not that I wanted the tangled mess of brambles, broom and other garden detritus, of course, but thanks are due to them as their company name was emblazoned on the side of their dumper van – and they reversed up nice and close to the farm’s infrared CCTV camera which caught a good picture of their registration plate as well.
And while the authorities follow this one up, it has to be said that the perpetrators’ brass neck was quite impressive.
They might have thought that the darker nights offered them the perfect opportunity to save on their landfill tax – but farm activity doesn’t stop when the clocks go back.
We had been moving cattle up and down the road between our farms until shortly before the stuff was dumped.
And the neighbours, who had been carting tatties, had seen the van trundle along full and then return empty a few minutes later – so it was surprising that they weren’t caught red-handed.
There are worse things than having a bit of fly-tipping on your land but I couldn’t help feeling really annoyed at the bare-faced cheek involved.
It’s a sad reflection of the world we live in that most farmers have been forced to fit security cameras and other devices to deter crooks who might have assumed that people in rural areas were a soft touch.
Fuel, quad bikes and even big, expensive pieces of kit like tractors are now targeted by opportunistic thieves – and so rural residents are kitting up with the latest technologies to make sure the criminals have a tougher time.
In the past, a blind eye might have been turned to local poachers – but nowadays they’ve been replaced by organised gangs who can decimate local wildlife and sporting interests over a short spell.
Of course, farms are just as prone to more modern types of criminal activity as well – and there’s seldom a month goes by without reports of attempted computer or phone fraud targeted at the farming community.
But while we should be aware of these things, we’re no worse off in the countryside than anywhere else.
So remember what they used to say on Crimewatch – don’t have nightmares, do sleep well.