Farms vandalized

Multiple farmers have reported incidents of vandalism this harvest season — one caused between $30,000 and $40,000 in damage.

According to the RCMP, over the past month the Fort Qu’Appelle and Southey RCMP Detachments have received complaints of damage to property in the RMs north of Lipton and north of Fort Qu’Appelle.

“What’s happening is someone is actually hiding the shovels in the swaths, so when the combine comes along so it’s sucking those shovels into the combine and obviously causing large amounts of damage,” said Sartison.

The damage reported by the four victims varies.

“One guy reported between $30,000 to $40,000 in damage,” said Sartison.

In some instances, the machines are catching the shovels before they get sucked into the combine, so those machined have received less damage.

The RCMP are currently investigating four complaints — three in the Fort Qu’Appelle-Detachment area and one in the Southey-Detachment area.

“We don’t think it’s random, based on the fact that they are in very proximity to one another,” said Sartison.

He said the shovels being used to inflict the damage are old discarded pieces of equipment.

“Cultivator shovels are replaced often because they are basically used to break up the earth,” said Sartison. “They get damaged very easily and they are replaced constantly. I guess it’s really common to have those laying around a farm yard and the ones that are being found in these swaths are usually old, discarded, rusted-out shovels and they would really have no reason to be laying in the swaths.”

The RCMP believes there are other victims out there.

“But being that it’s harvest and farmers are busy, I would imagine if one had an incident where it really didn’t do much damage, he probably wouldn’t think much of it and just keep going,” said Sartison.

He is encouraging other victims to come forward and make a report so the RCMP will have an accurate count of how many incidents have occurred.

The RCMP is also encouraging those who may have information about the incidents to call their local RCMP detachment or Crime Stoppers are 1-800-222-8477.