Ventura County Sheriff Farm Watch.
Protecting our agricultural community.

We are joined by 19 new members, including UC Davis Ext and our local Ventura County Citrus Nursery supplier.
For those of you who just joined us welcome aboard. In brief, we will send you updates on farm crime trends, prevention tips and you have joined a virtual network between public safety and many great organizations including the Ventura County Agricultural Association, Cattleman's Association, Farm Bureau, Fire Safe Councils. there are too many to list in this email as the Sheriff's Department's Farm Watch network links over 550 farm, ranches, nurseries and oil production sites in the county.

Well it is a scorcher out there as I type this Saturday afternoon. Get those drippers going, stay cool and take a break to read "FARM WATCH"

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties have been plagued with by a criminal ring who for the last 4 months have used our rural farms and ranches in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as targets.

Farm Watch is also working with our adjoining counties and just held a strategic rural theft task force meeting last week. In attendance were 18 detectives from our Sheriff Department Major Crimes, CSI, Intelligence and Ag-Theft Unit. I was impressed watching the detectives sort out tips and evidence. They were able to complete a plan of attack against these crook's activities. First and foremost on their "to do" list was prevention and reporting.

Here is what we know: The crooks are hitting between 11 pm and 4 am. They prefer barns, rural offices and connex boxes with doors opening away from any caretaker's residences.

These malfeants (Had to throw a fancy word in there) are well versed in rural Ag operations and use burglary tools such as bolt cutters, torches and crow bars. Their favorite crook food of the day is generators, pumps, weedeaters, saws, welders and for dessert, they like chainsaws and leaf blowers. They may use your tractors, quads, UTV's to drive the loot up to a 1/4 mile away for a pick up by their scouts.

I was so pleased to see a local farmer had blocked his connex storage every night with a 4 ton large end loader. His crew moves the loader each morning so as they can get the doors open. You can use some similar system. These crooks don't want to make much noise, let alone firing off those glow plugs in the tractors and waking your caretakers up at night.

Light, Action, Cameras:
Okay, we are going to make that the new Farm Watch creed. Motion lights (Even 12 volt for remote locations) help take action to curtail their appetite for targeting your shed. They may even move onto another location. Cameras, Cameras, Cameras. One of our only true breaks in busting this ring came from a Farm Watch member two weeks ago, who handed us an hour's worth of video of our suspects. All our detectives owe this farmer a deep "thanks." We were able to obtain so much information, some of which we have to keep quiet, James Bond Style right now so we don't tip our hand to the crooks and their ring.

Site Visits:
We have talked about sending our deputies to your farms to do a site visit and give tips to "harden" your sheds, barns and houses. We did 7 site visits in the last two weeks and I am convinced that these farmers and ranchers will be less likely to targeted if they take our tips to heart.

College Interns:
We would like to introduce Sheriff's Farm Watch Interns Mac Spears and Joe Gonzalez. I call them the Mac and Joe volunteer show. Mac is a Senior attending UCSD and a Joe just graduated from Long Beach State. Both want to join the FBI or DEA. After we get done with them at Farm Watch this summer, they will come to their senses and want to join our agency and stay right here in Ventura County. ... Both are volunteering 3 days a week in our task force to catch these connex- storage box crooks. Last week, the Mac and Joe show drove up and down roads across the county and hand delivered 450 bi-lingual Crime Theft Warning fliers at farm, ranches and nurseries. They have a lot more to pass out but it sure helps us all at Farm Watch, our Department and Ag Detectives really thanks them for their help.

Recycle Thefts:
If you read your Statewide Ag Alert newspaper last week, you learned about metal recycle theft on the rise in Solano County. This warning is important for us to note down here in Ventura County. These metal thieves tend to start in the Northern counties and move like nomad down here after they have cleaned out the farms in the north and central valley. Remember to always email Farm Watch with any license plates and descriptions of recyclers that may approach your farm or ranch. We like to keep track of who is picking up scrap metal in our area.

Vehicle and Shed Burglary:
Howe Road, Piru. Suspects broke into the ranch jeep and stole the radio, in addition they broke into the shed and stole numerous tools, pressure washer and a weed eater.

South Mountain:
A 33 acre farm had all their storage shed broken into and the crooks took pressure washers, welders and electric saws. The suspects used bolt cutters. This was done by the criminal ring are looking for.

Piru Ranch House Burglary:
Howe Road, Piru. The suspects broke a remote window to a farm house, broke in and took money and a television. They ransacked the house. This appears to be the work of a local Piru burglar and we can use any tips from locals. All tips are confidential. Remember a month ago, we caught a major fuel thief by 3 different Farm Watch tips. There are no silly or dumb tips.

Pleasant Valley Road:
The criminal ring that we are looking for broke into the farm storage buildings and took numerous tools from the shop.

South Las Posas Road:
The suspects broke into the ranch, cut chains to gates and stole all kinds of tools and equipment. This crime was also done in the late hours between midnight and 4 Am.

Santa Rosa Valley:
A local nursery on Santa Rosa Road lost pumps, generators and other equipment to the same crooks. The bad guys used crow bars to pry open the back door to the nursery.

Tierra Rejada:
A retail nursery had suspects who entered late at night and stole 2 large water fountains. Keep an eye out for these on Craig's List. Call Sergeant John Wright at Moorpark Police station (john.wright@ventura.org) if you locate them online.

Gardener Thefts:
Once again we have been hit in the Santa Rosa Valley. To our Santa Rosa Farm Watch members, please, as landscapers are doing weekly lawn maintenance, suspects are stealing equipment right out of their trucks in broad daylight. Lets help out these folks by paying special attention.

Caryl Drive (South-east Oxnard plains)
Camarillo Detectives were busy searching for clues with CSI in tow, as the connex box criminal ring hit a large ranch south of Potrero and north of PCH. They used the same means and stole all kinds of ranch tools. What's amazing is that these connex boxes were well out of the way and the ring had to spend some time looking for them. Our patrol deputies have increased vehicle stops late at night between 11pm and 4 am. Please educate your late-working farm workers that we are sorry for the brief vehicle stops, but we may just get lucky and find out of town crooks that are dining on your belongings. Sergeant Joe Devorick is handling this case and if you have any tips email Joe. joe.devorick@ventura.org

Fraud Fraud Fraud:
Last week, I just happened to check my bank account online (Kid in College). What's funny is I rarely use online banking, in fact, maybe no more than once a month. Instantly, I noticed 2 fraud charges on my debit card. The charges caught my eye because they were each for one dollar and both made at two different shell gas stations in Camarillo. I had not bought gas at a Shell station ever with the debit card. The charges were less than two hours old. How's that for good luck. As you recall, skimmer rings will test your stolen debit and credit information first with a few $1 dollar charges to see if the information they skimmed from you is good. I was able to navigate my way through the bank's after hours phone tree (what a pain) and stop the charges before they really zapped me with some hefty debit withdrawals. I still don't know where they skimmed my debit checking card but the real story is to always check your charges regularly.

Camarillo Brush Fire:
We sent out an Farm Watch Fire Alert last week. The brush fire was quickly put out by the VCFD. In addition, the Sheriff's Department sent out reverse 911 calls to local residents and farmers that were effected, advising them about the fire. Don't forget to register your ranch and associated farm worker cell phones with the Sheriff's Department at VCSD.org. We will call you with a reverse 911 call when there is an emergency in your area. This becomes quite helpful for you and your workers.

In addition, during disasters such as fires, or just if you hear sirens in your area, you can also check online at VCSD.org and see what is going on with deputies in your area . It is nearly live, but we delay the public listing of 911 calls by 45 minutes to protect your deputy safety and avoid criminals using the information to assist in committing crimes. The VCFD and CHP also maintain lives call logs on their internet websites that are not delayed.

It has been a very busy last three weeks and summer is an active time for both fighting crime and harvesting crops. Let's be safe at both!!
Your friend, Capt. Tim Hagel