Farm Watch is all about keeping our rural community safe.

It's a nice cool Saturday morning and a perfect time to catch up on what's happening in our rural community.

Burglars Return:
Last week was a bad week. After a brief 3 week Hiatus, we were hit county wide by the storage container burglars. They followed the same M.O (Cop talk for method of operation), cutting off locks and using torches to cut through the connex boxes. We know that they victimize our farms and ranches between 11 P.M and 4 A.M.
Folks, remember to call in suspicious vans, trucks and cars hanging out during those times. You can use 911 for that. As a matter of fact, late Thursday night, a Farm Watch member likely scared off our burglars by calling in a suspicious van in the area of South Mountain Road near Santa Paula. Sheriff's Units swarmed the area. We didn't have any burglaries that night but we do know the suspects are using the vans and trucks as roving lookouts while their crew of 3 to 5 thugs walk through the farm and ranch areas on foot to avoid detection.

Listen to a story about a man named Jed...Oil, Oil, Oil:
Our local thieves are at it again. They hit two different oil facilities in the county.
First, they snuck into a oil field on West Gonzales Road on the Oxnard plains and took insulated copper wire from the utility poles and electrical boxes. The damage far exceeds the recycle value of the copper. Okay, here is the wild card, keep an eye on the Chinese economy. Their government reports another housing growth spur and an economy that may be getting too fast paced again. The last time this happen in 2008 our local recycle metal thefts shot off the charts by a metal price increase driven by the Chinese need for metals. It's simple supply and demand.

Second hit, was an oil field on South Mountain Road, west of Santa Paula. They had a remote connex box broken into and tools and equipment taken. The suspects had to know the mountain and how to navigate the maze of dirt roads.

Happy Camp Burglary:
A ranch on Happy Camp was victimized by a car burglar that hit between 12 and 1 A.M. The rancher had heard the suspect walking around outside but was unable to locate him. He escaped with personal property from a ranch vehicle.

Fumigation Burglary:
A Wheeler Canyon resident had fumigated their house and vacated it for three days. During that time a suspect broke in and stole a computer and other electronics. Make sure you keep a close eye on neighbor's houses when they leave during a fumigation. There are enterprising crooks out there that know it will be vacated for a day or two.

Avocado Theft:
Thieves used a red Lincoln Navigator for their escape after stealing avocados in the 7000 block of Bradley Road. The suspect was an unidentified male.

Fuel Theft:
Suspect's cut a gate lock and entered a farm property on Santa Clara and Central and stole a battery and gasoline out of a farm truck.

Injured Officer:
A shout out to CHP Officer Brandon Mumme who narrowly escaped death by a woman who wanted to kill herself, "Suicide by Cop." Brandon received moderate injuries after the mentally unstable woman rammed her fast moving car nearly head on into Brandon's CHP police cruiser on Guiberson Road. While injured, Brandon was still able to get himself out of his totaled police car and render aid to the woman who wanted a more violent ending. He kept her from inuring herself further. Farm Watch has a special place for Brandon as he is one of our local, rural CHP Officers who is always patrolling county roads. Brandon is a home grown rural CHP Officer and seems to show up first at emergencies in remote locations. We appreciated his love for our farming and ranching community. You can send any thank you cards or just some "E" notes to Brandon via his Commander, Cliff Williams clwilliams@chp.ca.gov

Piru Prickly Bandits:
Two armed males entered the Piru Catus Nursery at about 4 PM. and held the clerk captive at gun point while they robbed the business of cash. They escaped with a get away driver after tying up the victim. No one was hurt in the incident. Remember, if you call 911 from a cell phone we do not always have a guaranteed location of where you are. Make sure the GPS is activated in your cell phone (most are), and use a hard phone line whenever possible. Our Sheriff's Gang Unit is handling this case and can use any tips you may have. Contact Sergeant Bill Schierman at bill.schierman@ventura.org

Camp Theft:
Lake Piru reports that an unknown suspect stole the entire tent, sleeping bags and tarps out of a campsite. The family returned to find everything gone. While this is a rare event, we want to remind you that crooks like camping also. Secure your property such as ice chests' generators etc.. When you will be away and while you sleep at night.

Santa Rosa Burglar:
We still have a petty theft burglar working the area of Santa Rosa Valley on Redondo and Presilla Roads. The suspect enters unlocked cars in the middle of the night and takes personal belongings. This area also gets many landscaper equipment thefts while the gardeners are working on the large properties.

Briggs Cart Theft:
Suspects stole a farm golf cart and charger from behind a locked yard.

Piru Storage Thefts:
Suspects broke into a storage container late at night and took three Stihl chainsaws and two Stihl weedeaters. They cut the locks with bolt cutters. Our C.S.I Team rolled out to the scene and were able to recover a fair amount of evidence. It appears a truck was used in this crime.

Koenigstein Road:
Upper Ojai is a classic quiet rural setting. Residents enjoy the remoteness of their properties. An unknown suspect entered a ranch on Koenigstein and broke into a connex box container with a crow bar. They ransacked the container and left many items behind. It looks like they wanted out of their fast. We may never know why they didn't take more items, but we hope it was because an unknowing neighbor may have been passing by.

Fraud Alert:
Last week we received a call from a Farm Watch member who smelled fish. Well not exactly, but something smelled fishy. They were selling some equipment on Craig's List. A buyer emailed them and told them that they wanted to buy their equipment. Not for the asking price of $5,000, but the buyer wanted to pay $300 more than asked. The caveat was that our seller would be required by the buyer to remove the item from Craig's List immediately.
We are so proud of our Farm Watch member. They called us right away for advice.

After all, who would offer to buy equipment for more than asked?

We knew this script and how it would play out, so lets share it with you.

As expected, the crooks told our Farm Watch seller that they would "overnight" a check for $5,300 and then arrange shipping. We had our buyer give the crooks our Sheriff's Station address so we could receive the check. As expected, it came via Fed Ex the next day. In fact, I am looking at it right now.

The check is for $7,300 dollars. It seems the crooks accidently made the check out for $2,000 more than the selling price.

So begins the scam. Next they emailed back and said that they made a mistake and could we just deposit the check ("out of state" that's a clue) and wire them the $2,000 difference. It is a very effective scam. Suddenly they said, "for your effort, keep $500 of the $2,000," thus only wiring them $1,500 and still selling the equipment.
Well, we knew there was no buyer and that we didn't really effectively sell the equipment.

This was all about scamming our victim into wiring the $1,500 to the suspects, who we know from experience are likely in Nigeria. Of course the check was stolen and fraudulent and we didn't fall for it. It has made a nice wall decor for my collection of these scam checks.

Folks, these people feed on naive greed. Remember what your Grandpa said, if it smells too good to be true it is....

This is a scam that pays hundreds of millions a year to Nigerian mafia groups that have cells in the USA. They use the internet and money wire systems as their tools of the trade. The FBI reports very little headway in catching them, so lets stop them by eradicating the potential for our Farm Watch members to be victimized.

Be safe Farm Watch....
Your Friend,
Tim Hagel