Police Warn Rural Community After Farming Equipment Theft

Living Magazines police patrol car

The Three Rivers Safer Neighbourhood Team is urging the rural community to be vigilant after the attempted theft of farming equipment in Maple Cross.

Overnight between Wednesday 29 December and Thursday 30 December, approximately £1,000 worth of damage was caused to a tractor.

It is believed that offenders were attempting to remove the vehicle’s satellite receiver. While they were unsuccessful, the tractor’s bodywork suffered dents and scratches as a result.

Overnight between Thursday 30 December and Friday 31 December, four additional incidents were reported in Sarratt where a trailer, a mini digger and power tools were stolen.

PC Christian Gottmann, a Rural and Wildlife Crime Officer, said: ‘The equipment has since been removed from the tractor as a crime prevention measure, but we’d like to warn the rural community of these incidents so they can take further precautions to protect their property by locking items away securely.

‘We are investigating these incidents and appeal to anyone who witnessed suspicious activity in the Denham Way area of Maple Cross, or the village of Sarratt, overnight between the dates stated to come forward and speak to us. In the meantime, we will be increasing our patrols of these areas as a reassurance measure.’

If you have information, you can email PC Gottmann at christian.gottmann@herts.police.uk, use online web chat at herts.police.uk/contact, report information at herts.police.uk/report or call the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 41/102207/21.

Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit their website www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

You can use the community voice platform ‘echo’ to let police know what you think they should be prioritising in your area. Your feedback will help towards shaping local policing priorities, initiatives and campaigns. Visit bit.ly/police-threerivers. Please don’t use echo to report an ongoing crime or incident. Remember: if you believe a crime is in progress or someone is in danger, always dial 999.

To receive police messages about a range of topics including burglaries, scams and missing people in your local area, sign up to owl.co.uk/herts or download the ‘OWL crime alerts’ app from your app store.