Burglar alarm
This year though, if one were to scan the headlines throughout the event, it would be impossible to avoid the numerous stories relating to farm security and the rapidly escalating scourge of thefts. The community garda stand at the championships was probably never so busy.
The ease with which machinery, trailers and even animals are being stolen relates to the isolated nature of so many holdings.
With little or no passing traffic thieves can, at their leisure, make off with their items of choice knowing they are highly unlikely to be caught red-handed.
Isolated areas or places where few pass by for long periods of time are now prime targets for gangs of opportunistic thieves and burglars.
Within minutes a car or lorry can be drained of fuel, a roadside statue ripped from its foundations or a bicycle lifted from a front yard. Nothing, even if it is nailed down, is safe.
In the past 12 months the number of recorded burglaries nationwide has shot up. Thefts have also increased markedly.
According to the latest CSO statistics, in the third quarter of 2011 there were 6,561 recorded burglary (non-aggravated) offences, an increase of 493 or 8.5% on the same period last year.
While aggravated burglary offences decreased by over 5% between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, from 79 to 75, recorded theft from a person offences increased from 690 in the third quarter of 2010 to 1,006 in the same period this year, an increase of 45.8%.
The CSO also found that in the category of “other thefts and handling stolen property”, offences increased by 1,119 (2.7%) to 42,544 in the 12-month period prior to the end of the third quarter of this year. That category includes theft from a vehicle, of a pedal cycle or theft or interference with mail.
The methods by which the criminals extract their bounty are highly varied.
In one case, a Dublin couple mistakenly left the door of their car unlocked while parked overnight in the driveway. When they emerged the next day the radio and contents of the vehicle had been stolen.
They were later told that it was likely the thieves had been masquerading as distributors of charity bags. A pattern had emerged where, every time they would approach a house, the would-be thieves would try the doors of the cars in the driveway and the front door of the house in the hope that they were left unlocked.
In another case a resident of an affluent estate in Dublin noticed a faint chalk mark on the door of their house.
It was only later when a number of residents noticed the marks and an investigation was launched that they realised thieves were patrolling the area, putting barely perceptible code signs on the doors of property. One mark might mean there was no one at home in a property during the day. Another would indicate that there was a dog in the house. Another would signify that the house was alarmed.
Almost the whole estate had been kept under close surveillance and almost every house had one mark or another.
For the most part though, the increased rate of thefts and burglaries results from crimes that are much more opportunistic and spur-of-the-moment.
For example, earlier this year, a scam emerged in which people would use a simple technique to steal mobile phone credit.
The scammers would go into the shop and ask for a mobile phone top-up before handing over a credit card to pay.
However, while the card was being processed, they would us their mobile phone to take a photograph of the top-up pin number, before feigning surprise when the credit card didn’t work and leaving the shop with the top-up pin stored in their mobile.
In its most recent survey, Eircom Phonewatch estimated that €48 million worth of goods was taken from households in Ireland in only the last 12 months. That equated to an average of €1,870 worth of property per household. It found an increase of 13% in the number of burglaries in Dublin, though in Cork there was actually a 16% decrease.
That figure would appear to be at odds with those provided earlier this month by the Cork county joint policing committee. It found there were 454 incidents in Cork between August and October — compared with 331 for the same period last year.
Eircom found that, unsurprisingly, the most likely time of day for a house burglary was 12pm to 4pm.
Thursday was the day homes were most likely to be targeted.
For the most part the motivation for crimes is financial, but the reality is that in many cases the effect of the crime on the victim goes well beyond the mere loss of an item.
Over 20% of the calls received by the National Crime Victims Helpline last year related to property crime, most commonly burglary.
“While often seen as a ‘less serious’ crime, being a victim of burglary can leave people feeling violated, vulnerable and afraid, and can destroy their peace of mind and their feeling of safety in their own home,” the operators of the helpline said. “People also suffer financial losses and we also hear some heartbreaking stories of precious possessions, such as a mother’s wedding ring or a treasured photo of a loved one, that are suddenly gone with little hope of recovery.
The helpline found that callers affected by burglary were also concerned about home security and how to prevent such a crime from happening again.
“Another factor in many of these calls is that all family members, including children, are affected by this crime.” it said. Apart from burglary, many calls to the helpline related to theft or robbery such as valuables taken from a car, a handbag snatched on the street, a cash robbery at an ATM machine, or a mobile phone theft.
“Where violence, or threat of violence, is involved this crime can be very traumatic for the victim,” it said. “Even if there is no violence used, the sense of shock and disbelief and the sudden loss of cash or valuable items are very distressing and can have a severe impact on people’s confidence, often leading to changes in lifestyle.
“Callers tell us, for example, that they will no longer go to a certain area where they used to go before, or they will no longer go out unaccompanied, or when they do go out they feel fearful and suspicious of everyone they meet.”
MORE than 1,300 items of farm equipment have been reported to gardaí as stolen in the last 12 months — but those living and working in rural communities know that is only the tip of the iceberg.
While trailers appear to be the most common bounty for raiders, every conceivable piece of machinery appears to be fair game.
Quad bikes, tractors, car batteries, tools, machinery and even a half-tonne roller are just a few of the items which have gone missing in the last 12 months.
The extent of the upsurge in crime in rural areas is such that Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan used the recent ploughing championships to launch the latest An Garda Síochána Supporting Safer Communities initiative.
Gardaí said the 1,316 farm items stolen in the last 12 months was an increase of 5% on the previous year.
This month in Sligo a 05 John Deere was taken.
According to the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), the tractor had only 1,000 hours done and was equipped with a valuable front loader and grab.
To make the crime worse, after it was stolen, diesel was then siphoned at two separate locations on the journey away from the farm.
In West Cork, in particular, the spate of farm thefts so far this year have been such that they accounted for the vast majority of all thefts for the entire region. Gardaí in the area said a wide variety of property was being targeted, including trailers, power tools, copper and metals and that thieves were having significant success due to very poorly secured sheds.
According to Dermot Kelleher of ICSA, the last 6-8 weeks in particular have seen an upsurge of crime in rural areas across the West Cork region. He said the entire rural community appeared to be targets. Scrap metal, gold from people’s houses and machinery were the items most under threat.
Gardaí have warned farmers to bring older holdings up to date with 21st century security measures.
“Restrict access to your farmyard and install gates which are fixed to sturdy concrete or metal posts,” was the advice. “Keep them locked and consider signage such as ‘private property’. CCTV and an alarm system can offer further security in vulnerable areas that are out of view of the farmhouse. And installing good lighting, which will illuminate those areas that can be seen from the house or viewed by the CCTV cameras, is also recommended.”
Earlier this year it emerged that the rising cost of disposing of dead cattle was leading to theft of livestock from a number of locations as well.
With veterinary bills and disposal costs of more than €400 for a mortality, on top of the loss of value which could range from €1,000 to €1,500, cattle rustlers realised there was a market to handpick their targets. Cattle would be stolen to order as replacements for similar cattle which had died on farms. Earlier this year rustlers rounded up an entire herd in Kerry and picked out the eight best in-calf cows, before taking them. The farmer would bury the fallen animal on his land and apply for replacement cattle tags meaning the imposter in the herd would go unnoticed by the authorities.
The concern for farmers, and indeed all residents of rural areas, is that the power to detect and prevent crime in isolated locations could be drastically affected by plans to close rural garda stations.
It emerged in recent weeks that Justice Minister Alan Shatter plans to close almost a quarter of the country’s 700 garda stations with rural Ireland set to bear the brunt of the closures.
John Barron, rural development chairman of the ICSA, said: “The removal of nearly a quarter of the country’s Garda stations, with the majority of them being in the countryside, will simply create a platform for opportunistic criminals to take advantage of the isolation in rural Ireland. This will take away the ability of gardaí to quickly respond to a call. Rural Ireland will be seething if such closures are to happen and we are warning the minister to carefully consider all the outcomes of such measures.”
THANKS to the health conscious and those with an eye for a bargain, the Government’s cycle-to- work scheme saw 90,000 bikes bought in only the first two years of its existence.
Thanks to the tax break involved in the scheme, employees are able to make savings of up to 51% on a new bike, along with safety accessories.
That means they can opt to purchase a better class of two-wheeled transport, which otherwise might have seemed like a frivolous spend.
However, the scheme has been like a sweet shop for a sugar addict when it comes to opportunistic thieves. Armed with a pair of industrial-strength wire-clippers, even the strongest chain binding the worker’s bike to a railing or bike-stand can be snipped and the bike taken within a matter of seconds.
Bike thefts have more than doubled since 2008. More than 4,500 bikes were reported as stolen to gardaí last year.
The situation is so bad that gardaí have put a special section on their website advising members of the public on how to avoid having their bike stolen.
They say the public should:
* Take at least one distinguishing coloured photograph of your bicycle and keep a written record of the make, model and frame number and any unique features such as extra fittings, attachments or markings.
* Remember to update as the bike gets older — it is unlikely that it will stay in pristine condition and will more likely have dents and scratches.
* Security mark your bicycle in at least two separate places. The security mark should be clearly visible and not capable of being easily removed or camouflaged.
* Consider insuring your bicycle, either through a separate policy or through home contents insurance.
* Owners of very valuable bicycles should also consider having an electronic tracking device covertly inserted within the frame.
Thieves are also targeting another high-price personal device which has even more widespread mass appeal. The number of smartphones being stolen is increasing by the day.
Criminals can get anything between €50 and €100 in cash for them from mobile phone shops which wipe the information contained on the devices and then sell them on. It was recently reported that gardaí had identified at least 12 such shops on the northside of Dublin alone.
While the shops are not acting illegally, gardaí have spoken to owners and informed them of what is happening.
Phones are among the items being targeted by gangs who frequent beauty spots around the country and break into parked cars while their owners are enjoying the scenery.
Last April alone there were 27 cars broken into along the stretch of coastline between Kinsale and The Warren in Rosscarbery.
In all cases the windows of cars had been smashed and valuable items left on display inside were stolen. Among those items were handbags, sat-navs, wallets and mobile phones.
Another class of robbery victim would appear to have little choice but to leave items in full view of the public.
The Vintners Federation of Ireland has urged large breweries to stop early morning deliveries because so many stainless steel beer kegs are being stolen for scrap.
In recent weeks, gardaí in Bandon found 92 stolen kegs, which each have a scrappage value of around €100, hidden near a lake in Enniskeane. If the thieves had been successful, the haul could have netted them nearly €10,000.
The problem for publicans is that, with more and more suppliers deciding to make their deliveries very early in the morning, publicans are having to leave the kegs unattended soon after closing time, leaving a long period of darkness during which the thieves can strike.
It is not just the empty alcohol containers that are at risk though. Only last week, thousands of euro worth of spirits were stolen from a warehouse near Midleton in east Cork.
The expectation was that, in the run-up to Christmas, the thieves would try to sell on the cases of spirits at below cost-price to publicans elsewhere in the country.
TO some people the statues which adorn the sides of many of our roads are a welcome, momentary distraction from the boredom of a long drive while to others monuments are a poignant reminder of an important aspect in some people’s lives.
However, to would-be thieves the aesthetic beauty or personal significance of such creations pale into significance when compared to the financial value of the materials from which they are constructed.
Throughout the country, eye-catching figures have slowly but surely been disappearing, leaving a jagged piece of metal sticking out of a foundation.
Bronze copper or stainless steel are often the metals being targeted and with some pieces weighing up to a tonne or more, they reap a high financial reward for the gangs who rip them from their foundations and melt down their constituent parts.
The thieves can, dependent on the quality of the metal content, expect to receive more than €5,000 per tonne which, while nothing close to the value of the original piece of work, is still high reward for a few minutes of work under the cover of darkness.
One of the most high-profile statue thefts this year occurred in March when the Bronze Lady, commissioned by Westmeath County Council, was stolen from the M6 slip road approaching Moate.
Sculptress Ann Meldon Hugh would have been forgiven for thinking that while her sculpture depicting Gráinne Óg contained valuable metals, the sheer size of it, at five feet tall and weighing in at a tonne, would have discouraged the thieves.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked,” she said. “It was the biggest of all the pieces I’d ever made, so it never occurred to me for a second that she was at any kind of a risk.”
Willie Malone’s bronze creation, The Hitchhiker was worth €30,000, weighed more than 1,000kgs and stood more than three metres tall. Yet robbers managed to take it from its very public location along the side of the main Dublin to Cork road in Co Kildare.
A statue of Celtic Goddess Danu was taken from its site outside Rathmore, Co Kerry, and artist Sandra Bell had two three-metre bronze sculptures taken from her home in Dundalk.
The theft of such statues is obviously upsetting for the artists who worked tirelessly to create them.
However, the theft of one monument this month had a much more widespread effect.
The 10ft bronze, copper and brass sculpture was taken from its foundations on the banks of the River Nore in Co Laois. Unlike many of the other statues, this wasn’t just another piece of public art.
It was a monument dedicated to the memory of 30 young people from the county who had died in tragic circumstances. It depicted a tree broken off at its mid-section to represent lives cut short.
For one family, three names were written on a plaque of three young children who had lost their lives in a tragic house fire on Christmas Eve 1991. For the Grehan family it was yet another terrible loss to have to endure.
Much less emotionally harrowing for the victims, but equally lucrative for the thieves is the trade in copper wire.
Last month, Eircom confirmed that 2.5km of overhead phone cable had been stripped from the Johnswell area of Kilkenny while 100 metres had been taken from poles near Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary.
Just to replace the huge length of cable taken in the Kilkenny theft cost the phone company €10,000.
It is likely that as soon as they could, the thieves would have burnt off the plastic casing of the cable to get at the valuable copper contained within.
Those seeking the valuable metals will also resort to stealing lead on roofs, copper piping and even immersion tanks.
Over the summer, one particular theft had the potential to cost lives.
The thieves stole seven steel gates from railway level crossings in the north-west. The 4.3m x 1.5m steel barriers were taken overnight from junctions at Clonloo, near Boyle, Co Roscommon and Culfadda, near Ballymote, Co Sligo.
Luckily Iarnród Éireann officials realised very early in the morning that the gates were gone and were able to put makeshift safety measures in place to stop what could have been a disaster.
IN spite of the recession, fuel and heating oil costs have continued to rise to what many now consider to be unaffordable levels.
That is resulting in a huge upsurge in the number of homes, workplaces and even vehicles being targeted by thieves.
Log onto eBay and one can purchase a fuel-siphoning kit perfectly legally for just a few euros.
One of those on sale “the jiggle siphon” has a “self-priming pump” and can, according to the seller, siphon up to 3.5 gallons per minute.
Readily available equipment of that type means that in less than 10 minutes, thieves can empty a car’s full fuel tank. With slightly more sophisticated equipment a full commercial oil tank can easily be emptied without detection.
Gardaí have said they are aware of the increase in the sales of siphoning kits “some of which may not be used for legitimate purposes” and they are warning homeowners and commercial premises to be particularly vigilant.
Car makers are increasingly using new technology to combat siphoning from their customers’ cars.
For example, Ford has designed an “Easy Fuel” mechanism which makes it difficult to insert any object other than a standard fuel pump nozzle.
While the design is primarily to prevent customers from pumping diesel into a petrol tank, the makers say it has the added benefit of discouraging thieves wielding a siphoning hose.
However, other makes of cars and older models not fitted with such equipment are easy game for the would-be thief.
Increased attacks on oil tanks both in homes and commercial premises have prompted gardaí to advise home and land owners to bury the fuel tanks where possible and to install a pump mechanism.
Otherwise even if the tank is locked, thieves will simply drill through the plastic, drain it and make off with the contents.
Earlier this year, gardaí managed to snare a gang who were using an oil tanker to steal home heating oil from hundreds of houses.
The thieves used a 2,000-litre truck complete with pumps to steal the oil from houses across the northwest.
They would call from door to door and when people were not home, they emptied the tanks pretending they were actually filling them.
In other instances the thieves were not quite so well prepared. In Cork earlier this year, there was a spate of oil thefts in which the criminals emptied the oil into large drums or small tanks which were then carried in the back of four-wheel drive vehicles.
In Monaghan the victims of the fuel theft were a whole congregation.
Earlier this year, thieves stole 900 litres of heating oil, paid for by donations from the congregation, from a Church of Ireland premises.
Not only did services have to move to a community hall due to the theft, without heat, the church’s interior was damaged by frost and a number of radiators burst.
In fact, churches are becoming an increasingly popular target for thieves.
In the past month, 17 churches across Munster have reported the theft of gold and brass-plated candle sticks, collection boxes, bowls, vases, holy pictures and even linen altar cloths.
Gardaí recovered a haul of valuable items stolen from churches and grottos in four counties after searching two houses in Buttevant, Co Cork.
* Make a record of vehicle make, colour and registration when strangers call to your farm
* Note callers’ height, accent, hair colour, eye colour, tattoos, etc.
* Contact your local Garda Station as soon as possible
* Mark all your property with your unique personal ID.
* Keep a record of serial numbers to cross reference
* Consider installing GPS tracking system on your equipment
* Buy machinery, trailers, tractors, quads, ride-on mowers etc from strangers
* Pay cash for goods (Note: no receipt — no guarantee. Remember: If you are in possession of stolen goods you may be liable to prosecution)
* A visible intruder alarm will help deter thieves.
* Get specialist advice and shop around for best value. The system you install should meet EN50131.
* Keep your access gates to your property closed and consider appropriate signage.
* For practical advice contact the Crime Prevention Officer at your local Garda station.
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