WELCOME TO FARM WATCH FOR THIS LAST EDITION OF 2011!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I can’t believe another year is about to be over. Our Agricultural Community saw some significant spikes in larcenies, particularly in metal thefts. By year’s end however, progress was made in both ends of the county regarding metal thefts. Det. Ray Dominguez spearheaded the most notable arrest, which is detailed below. For this edition however, we identified those predominant thefts such as the following:
Copper wire thefts, connex box burglaries, a portable restroom theft, fruit theft including avocados, and saddle thefts. On a good note, the crime rate was down in the area of larcenies as compared to this same time period last year.

Notable areas of concern for this edition:

19000 block of South Mountain Road in Santa Paula: theft of two 950-amp batteries were taken from a John Deere loader (wires to the batteries were cut, and the batteries removed)

5000 Bennett Road, Simi Valley: large nursery where 18 connex boxes were burglarized. Mowers, landscape equipment, and edgers were taken. This most likely occurred in the wee hours of the morning.

6600 block of Los Angeles Ave., Somis: a portable restroom was taken from this custom farming property. Really!

2854 E. Telegraph Road, Fillmore: this popular fruit stand was hit twice where the first time it was vandalized with graffiti, and the second time apparently the crooks were hungry as they stole only food items.

5700 block of W. Gonzales Road, Oxnard: 55 feet of copper wire was stolen from a Venocco oil well.

3100 block of W. Telegraph Road, Fillmore: large connex box burglarized where the thieves took a 10’ x 5’ cement chimney that weighs 600 lbs. The connex box was left unsecured.

San Cayaetano Ranch @ Toland Road, Fillmore: 8 avocado trees had been partially picked where the fruit appeared to have been twisted off and complete stems were left behind.

1400 block of Tierra Rejada Road, Moorpark: victim’s shed had been burglarized where the thieves took 3 saddles

We wanted to share a success story in this edition of Farm watch because so many times we read or hear about the negative stories. We are pleased to announce the arrest of several suspects in connection with an on-going series of metal thefts from various farms throughout the county. Last week, detectives from the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit with the assistance of Sheriff’s Headquarters and Gang Unit Detectives conducted a surveillance of a suspect’s residence in Oxnard that led to the arrest of multiple suspects for various theft and drug related charges. See the attached Sheriff’s Office Press Release for details.

During the course of the investigation, an additional theft that had gone unreported was discovered at a farm in Ventura and later reported. Due to the fine work done by Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies, CSI technicians, and detectives, the suspects were arrested and criminal charges were filed with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

This in an on-going investigation, with additional victims being identified and evidence is being processed to bring additional charges against those suspects already in custody. Additional suspects are still outstanding and work is being done in the way of securing arrest warrants to also bring them to justice to face charges in this and other related cases.

As many of you already know, metal thieves have been very active throughout the county stealing whatever metal items they come across to later be taken to recycling centers to be cashed in as scrap metal. The items being stolen by the crew just arrested were metal support posts used to build “Hoop Houses” by local raspberry growers. They also stole sprinkler heads, irrigation pipe and connections from some local flower growers.

Because of the efforts made by the victim farms in this case, detectives were able to successfully identify the victims, and have them view their property before returning it to them. Such efforts by the victim’s in this case included marking their equipment for identification. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Please mark your equipment for identification. The Sheriff’s Office is currently working to revamp the Owner Applied Number (OAN) system that many of you already use to mark your equipment. For those of you with an OAN assigned we will be sending information out requesting updated contact information to update our files.

Another important step taken by the victim farms was preserving the crime scene. Again, this is important because the Sheriff’s Office commonly gets calls for service where the crime scene has been disturbed by employees working in the area, and crucial evidence is lost, disturbed, or destroyed prior to the arrival of responding deputies. Please preserve the crime scene by keeping employees and vehicles out of the area until deputies arrive to process the scene.

Another important, but often missed step is reporting the crime in the first place. I know that many of you have busy schedules and business operations and often time criminal activity goes unreported due to time restraints. The reporting process is important to detectives because many times we use the data collected from crime reports to identify crime trends. If you fail to report the criminal activity, then useful information used to link cases, collect potential evidence, and help identify possible suspects will be lost. Report the criminal activity in a timely manner because in many cases (particularly metal thefts) the items of stolen property will be transferred or sold soon after the crime occurs. Please report criminal activity as soon as possible to increase the probability of recovering stolen property.

Please do your part to help minimize the potential for criminal activity at your home or business by taking the time to protect your property by installing perimeter fencing, placing physical barriers along the perimeter of your property to prevent potential thieves from coming onto your property. Install surveillance cameras, motion-detection lighting, and alarms to alert you of criminal activity on your property. Keep supplies and equipment out of view and in a secure place and avoid stockpiling. Use hardened locks and other security devices such as “kill switches” to secure doors and disable equipment. Maintain inventory records of your supplies and equipment. Mark your equipment for identification, photograph the equipment, and maintain records that include the brand name and serial number information.

Taking the time to follow these easy steps will help make your home or business less attractive to criminals and likely prevent thefts from occurring. In the unfortunate event you become a crime victim, taking these steps in advance will make the reporting process go much quicker and be less stressful.

Please take the time to look at your home and business to identify potential problem areas where improvements can be made to reduce the risk of becoming a victim. If you are not sure of how to address the problem or would like additional crime prevention tips please contact your local Sheriff’s Office substation or Detective Ray Dominguez directly at (805) 477-7029 or by email at ray.dominguez@ventura.org.

Contacts:
Fillmore Detective Darin Hendren darin.hendrin@ventura.org or 524-2235 Ventura Detective Christine Rettura Christine.rettura@ventura.org 662- 6770
Agricultural Crimes Detective, Ray Dominguez at Ray.Dominguez@ventura.org Camarillo Detective Nora Soler, at Nora.soler@ventura.org

As always, we would like to thank Sheriff’s Crime Analyst Karen Brown who puts together your maps and digests all the crime data along with Det. Ray Dominguez who assists with the crime summaries.

Be alert and always safe!
Monica (797-6338)

Geoff Dean - Sheriff
Gary Pentis & John Crombach - Assistant Sheriffs