Welcome to Farm Watch. We have 19 new members.
Please forward the Sheriff's E-Newsletter to your rural friends and encourage them to join by simply sending an email to crime.watch@ventura.org Don't forget the dot between "crime and watch" on the address.
At Farm Watch, we all share a goal to keep our agricultural, ranching, nursery and oil industries free from crime.
Lets get started,
Berry Burglar Busted:
A local 17 year-old teen from Oxnard decided to break into Farm Worker cars along the 5700 block of Gonzales. Vigilant workers noticed him breaking into and casing cars. These workers were not afraid to call 911. They also chased him down and captured him for us. He is now spending his time in juvenile hall.
You know, once in a while we use a police word in our Farm Watch Alerts and forget it may be foreign to some. "Casing" is cop talk for a shady person trying to act normal and blend in the surroundings while really up to no good. Bank Robbers, Burglars and even Terrorist often "Case' before they strike. It is important for you to learn to detect this behavior in your rural environment and contact us. We have made so many arrests in our farms, oilfields and nurseries by employees detecting persons casing the property. Even a license plate simply emailed to us at Farm Watch can help solve a crime.
Windy Crooks:
It's easy for us to drive by our frost protection wind machines every day during the spring and summer without paying much attention to them.
Farmers are now preparing their machines for the winter frost protection season.
We just got word from a Farm Watch member that some crooks have just stolen radiators from two machines. They are likely going for the precious metals in the radiators and are selling them at recycle centers in the county. We do spot checks at the centers for stolen metals but they move the property so fast. It would be nice to see a recycle center call our detectives at the station and report a suspicious transaction.
The next time you are cleaning up scrap at your farm or oilfield and dropping it at a local metal recycling center, please encourage their metal businesses to help us. After all, the squeaky tractor wheel gets the grease.
October is Scam Month:
Yes it is official now. The bad guys must have voted it scam month and never sent us the memo. In one day, we had three senior citizens stop by the Police Station to drop off their donation checks because they were not comfortable with the directions given to them over the phone.
Say what? We did some research and found an organization out of Los Angeles using mass market calling to lure in our seniors around this County asking for money to support a recruitment expo for potential Ventura County Sheriff Deputies, Oxnard and Simi Police Officers. They instruct residents to leave the money in check-form under their front mat for pick up. We are looking into this situation and have notified the other police agencies.
First of all, we called every police agency in Ventura County and they are not associated with the group. Never, never, give your hard earned money to an alleged non profit that you are unfamiliar with. If you see or hear of other Police Fund raising scams being done, you can email me and we will check their authenticity out for you ( tim.hagel@ventura.org ). These scams prey on the good nature of our residents.
There are a very limited number of local police relief organizations in our area. Go to a Police or Sheriff Department's official website to see their connections to non-profit activity links.
Upper Ojai Theft:
14000 block of Ojai Santa Paula Road. numerous Connex Boxes were broken into during the night. the suspects stole a trailer and numerous tools.
NEWS FLASH:
I will not be writing Farm Watch News anymore because I just won nearly a million dollars $722,000 dollars in a sweepstakes.
I know you haven't read about it yet, but check it out.
Here is the email notification I received yesterday: (ANOTHER SCAM) I'm so excited.....
Hello Tim Hagel, Pepsi Cola Winner.
We at the management of Pepsi Cola Company do wish you congratulations for being selected as Winner for the sum of (FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX THOUSAND BRITISH POUNDS) 456,000 GBP.
Your prize amount has been packaged, sealed and deposited with XXXX WORLD DELIVERY SERVICE.
For procedures, Send your personal bank details to the email contact of XXXX WORLD DELIVERY SERVICE at XXXXX.com@XXXX.com, for the immediate claim of your winning prize of £456,000 GBP Bank Draft.
Congratulations once again as you are one of the 12 selected winners in the USA Pepsi End Of Year 2010 Awards.
End of the Award notice.
Well the first problem is I don't drink sodas. Secondarily, they emailed me to play on human greed for my bank routing numbers and deposit instructions.
This is a scam folks, to steal money from me (and you).. The money will be cashed in Nigeria.
Don't fall for these,
and yes we are still writing Farm Watch.. (:
Drip Bandits:
Be on the look out for 181 miles worth of row crop drip-tape stolen from the Oxnard Plains. Did he say 181 miles? Yep, that would be 959,400 feet of drip tape stolen in one night. It is used for strawberries and other row crops. It is over $17,000 worth of Aquatraxx brand 7/7" 6 mil thick with 6" spacing.
These guys went to great lengths to cut fences, locks and carted off thousands of pounds of drip. If you get approached to buy cheap irrigation supplies and it's not from your Ag-Dealer, call Detective Ray Dominguez at 805-797-6424 We need to find who is selling this after stolen and who is buying it if we are going to find who is stealing the drip tape. Ray is working hard to find these crooks and needs some tips.
El Rio Burglar:
El Rio - Burglary - 2000 block Los Angeles Ave. - Middle of the night. Unknown suspects cut the locks on two storage containers and one trailer. They entered and stole tools. C.S.I responded and obtained evidence. Our C.S.I scientists reminded me to thank you for your help preserving crime scenes for us. Because of you, we will catch these crooks, they are going to make a mistake. We have recovered some incredible evidence at these Connex Box burglaries .
Las Posas Valley:
Moorpark - Burglary - 5700 block of Grimes Canyon Rd. - Unknown suspects entered a rural gated storage yard and burglarized multiple vehicles and storage sheds. Tools were taken.
FACEBOOK:
As you recall we have been partnering with Oxnard Police Department to help fight agricultural crime in the Oxnard Plains. Marty Ennis is our Oxnard Police Liaison. He has been kind enough to set up a Facebook Account administered by Oxnard Police to help connect and post our Farm Watch on the Internet. If you are farming the Oxnard Plains we encourage you to join by sending Marty an email at crimefree@oxnardpd.org He will give you a password to be on the Facebook. Thanks for helping out Marty!
Wood Road Bandits:
Picture this: Hard working farm workers leave their cars on the side of the road. They walk thousands of feet out in the field to work and then they see a green colored, pick-up truck with males inside. The truck pulls near their remotely parked cars. The crooks jump out and break into five of the farm worker cars. All in all, they smashed the windows into five cars and took five stereos out of the dashes. We have to pull together and make sure every farm worker feels comfortable calling the Sheriff on 911. Please tell them we treat all victims the same. We are there to help them We will even come address them at any farm meeting to help foster the trust we need in them.
Broadway:
These guys never stop. They are bold and don't really care if you even live 100 feet away. We just had a farm's outbuilding broken into in the middle of the night and tools were taken. This occurred in the area of Broadway and Shekell (Moorpark).
Wells Burglar:
An unknown suspect broke a chain and gate into a property late in the night at the 9900 block of Wells Road. They stole numerous tools that were used to build a new rural house.
Tree Trimming Theft:
1400 block Tierra Rejada Road, Moorpark. Suspects entered a soils facility and stole tree-trimming equipment that included chain saws and harnesses. We need your help. We have reason to believe that besides Craig's List, these suspects are also selling stolen items at local swap meets. If you see stolen items that we have discussed, or a suspicious vendor at a local swap meet get a hold of me at 805-947-8189 (Text or Call). It is so important to write down and keep the serial numbers from your chain saws, generators, pumps and weedeaters. if stolen, we can hunt for them at these locations.
Avocado Burglar Busted:
What was he thinking? "Drop those California Hand Grown Hass." Seems the crooks just don't get the word. Farm Watch, Ventura County District Attorney Totten and Sheriff Brooks take it serious. If you steal avocados, you will go to jail. Abel Saldivar was in the mood to go steal a hundred pounds of avocados and go to jail all in the same day. He drove to an orchard at a farm on Wood and Hueneme Roads. Little did he know that he was under surveillance by the farmer. He tried to flee with the hundred pounds in his van but was ultimately caught in Oxnard.
Row Crop Assault:
Piru: Highway 126 near Camulos. A worker got in an armed scuffle while waiting to have a chile pepper flat counted at the trailer located at the end of a row. The suspect pulled out a pocket knife and attacked another farm worker. Luckily other works stepped in and stopped the fight before anyone was seriously injured.
It is important to remember that we virtually have day-time, small communities of people working together at picking time. Tempers can flare especially over unresolved prior issues from other situations. Remember, when you get word of rumors, or "keep aways" between field workers pay attention and try to mitigate it when the issue is small.
We send out Farm Watch about every three weeks. If you missed an edition of Farm Watch or just joining us you can look past issues up online at Fillmore Gazette and Sespe Sun.
Don't forget, we have Farm Watch rural crime maps attached in PDF format and you can always see what Sheriff's 911 calls are in progress at WWW.VCSD.org
Be Safe Farm Watch,
Your Friend
Tim
Captain Tim Hagel
Bob Brooks - Sheriff
Ventura County Sheriff
