Taking the keys out of your jeep when checking up on cattle could be the difference between crime gangs stealing your 4x4 or leaving it be.

That was a key message from An Garda Síochána’s crime prevention officer for Co Meath John Coggins to farmers attending an IFA farm walk in Meath last Tuesday.

“Most jeeps are stolen with the keys in them. We are all guilty of pulling up to a gateway, pulling out to check cattle and not bringing the keys with us,” Coggins stated.

“There is a crime gang in county Meath who are driving around looking for the opportunity to steal your jeep and unfortunately, they have been very, very lucky.”

Coggins said that 4x4s, quads, trailers and tools are the farm items most commonly reported as stolen from farms in the Meath area.

Well-lit yards, CCTV cameras and traceability measures like marking property with an Eircode have proven to be effective means of deterring thieves, the garda said.

Farmers should also record the serial numbers of their tools and the chassis number of trailers to enable property be returned if reported stolen and subsequently recovered by gardaí.

Signage

The crime prevention officer said that erecting signage stating that all property is marked and that there is CCTV can deter thieves from even entering your yard in the first place.

“All access to farms should be locked. A lot of the items taken from farms at the moment are taken because they are seen as easy to take.

“If they see you have a trailer locked, generally they are not going to take out an angle grinder to get off a lock, they will leave it where it is and look for something easier down the road. They go for the easy option.”

In response to a question from the crowd, Coggins agreed that farmers should be wary of purchasing second hand tools so as not to fuel demand for stolen property.

“If it was a thing there wasn’t a market for these tools, they wouldn’t be stolen. But there is a market for them and that is the problem because it wouldn’t be worth their while stealing if there wasn’t a market for the tools.”