Rural crime not so bad in my young day

FULL marks to Mark Shelford for his proactive stance on rural crime [WMN, February 29]. You asked for readers’ priorities on the subject. This, however, is not as simple as it may seem, for we all have different priorities in this respect and it is not just about policing.

Rural crime is undoubtedly on the increase and is becoming a more unpleasant and serious problem; in my post-war childhood I cannot recall it being so worrying.

There was petty larceny, some pub brawls and various goings-on but we had a local bobby who knew the ‘wrong ’uns’ and nipped it in the bud; now, with the increased mobility of criminals, it is no longer a local problem.

We never used to lock the farmhouse when we left it unattended (the locks did not work anyway), the Land Rover came without locks, which were an optional extra, and when my younger sister and I went to visit the grandparents I was 12 and we were put on the train unaccompanied, to be met at the destination. My father asked the guard to keep an eye but, nevertheless, no one would dream of doing it now.

It is the current vogue to blame the police, and the government for underfunding them: but, without being facetious, if everyone behaved as they should we would not need police at all.

My priority would be dog theft. Inanimate objects can be replaced but a dog gone for ever, not knowing what happened to it, must be heartbreaking, as they are a part of the family.

Roger Mason, South Molton