Since May, 15 4x4s (mainly Toyota Land Cruisers) have been stolen in Co Meath, with just two recovered.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Meath crime prevention officer Sergeant Dean Kerins said the thieves involved viewed farmyards as a supermarket.

“They’ll look for jeeps, look for tools, look for cattle, look for trailers, look for diesel bowsers, they will also look for a shotgun and they look for cash.”

He explained what was likely to be happening to the jeeps taken in Meath.

“My knowledge is the jeeps are being stolen for second-hand parts because there is big money in that.

“Sometimes they’ll possibly be shipped to different parts of Europe or north Africa.”

He identified a number of the thefts had occurred in the same way, which were likely to have been orchestrated by the same gang.

Thieves broke into homes, stole keys and drove the vehicles away during the night, but he also said some of the thefts were opportunist. In these cases keys had been left in jeeps while farmers worked nearby.

“We’d like them [farmers] to be more conscious of where they are parking the jeeps. Bring them into the middle of the field or up along the ditch, but do not be leaving them at the entrance where it is easy for someone to drive off.”

Prevention

Sergeant Kerins identified gates as the first preventative measure that could be put in place. After that, he said installing tracker systems was the best way to ensure a vehicle was recovered if it was stolen.

Every effort is being made by gardaí to recover the vehicles and there have been a number of cases where they have missed intruders by a matter of minutes. He also made the point that farmers needed to be more cautious.

“Don’t have it that someone can drive into the yard and pick and choose: there’s a trailer I’ll rob that and there are a few tools I’ll throw them into the trailer. Oh the keys are in the jeep, I’m going to use his jeep and I’m going to bring the whole lot away. That’s what they think,” he concluded.