Machinery was taken from two different dealerships
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
A tractor valued at around $75,000 was stolen from a Cobden, Ontario farm equipment dealer Wednesday night.
According to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), employees of Huckabone’s Garage returned to work Thursday morning to find a Kubota M5-111 tractor with a front loader attached missing.
OPP say a black transport truck with full trailer could be the suspect vehicle. It was last seen travelling west on Highway 17 towards Pembroke/North Bay.
Kubota M5-111
Photo: Kubota
It's the second tractor theft to take place at an Ontario farm equipment dealer within the past two weeks.
On January 9, OPP reported a 65 horsepower John Deere tractor with attached front loader stolen from Premier Farm Equipment in Erin.
Anyone with information on either theft is encouraged to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
But once a stolen tractor is recovered, it can be difficult to pinpoint its owner. Especially if serial numbers or other unique markings have been removed.
“In my experience, it’s difficult to solve these cases,” executive director of the Kings County Farm Bureau told the Hanford Sentinel. “If a piece of equipment isn’t identified or identifiable, it’s hard to prove who the owner is.”
But a product developed over 20 years ago in the United Kingdom has made its way to North America and is helping a county in California cut down farm equipment thefts.
SmartWaterCSI is a spray invisible to the naked eye but can be visible with an ultraviolet light.
Each bottle has its own unique signature which can help track machinery back to the original owner. Equipment owners simply brush the product on their machinery. It blends into the paint and can last for about five years once applied.
"With a glow-in-the-dark water-like spray, thieves can be tracked back to the crimes with a unique, mineral-based forensic signature," Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told reporters. "I like to call it a mineral DNA."
In the Florida jurisdictions using the product, there’s been a 75 per cent reduction in property crimes, says SmartWaterCSI.
The company said it’s currently working on a motion-activated sprayer that would spray suspects attempting to steal.