Rural crime: Damage caused by crime is much more than financial, says victim

The morning after Patrick Fitzgerald attended a Christening and other members of his family were away at a month’s mind leaving his farm unoccupied for several hours, he discovered a nearly new cattle box had been stolen from the yard.

“I only had it less than a year,” he said of the double-axle, 12x6 box which was worth about €4,500 and used for carrying cattle from his farm outside New Inn in south Tipperary, a few kilometres from Cashel.

“There’s a passage further down the road from the farm gate, into the fields, and there’s a couple of rights of way that lads use. After the box was stolen you could see tracks in the field.