BY RANDY WELLS
Indiana Co. Correspondent
MARION CENTER (Indiana)
Although newspapers every
day have stories of rising crime in
America’s cities and suburbs, liv
ing in rural Pennsylvania is no
guarantee a thief won’t strike your
farm next.
According to the Pennsylvania
Commission on Crime and Delin
quency (CCD), rural crime is also
on the increase. In fact, Barbara
Woodruff, who has been studying
rural crime for 1 years as a Com
munity Development Agent with
the Penn State Extension Service,
said the number of crimes per
capita is actually greater in rural
areas of the state than in urban
centers.
People who live in the country
generally may be less security
conscious than their city cousins,
according to the CCD.
Pennsylvania State Police
Trooper Allen Evans of the India
na station agrees. “Rural people
have lived for so long without any
problems, with leaving their
equipment out in the Helds and
without locking up buildngs,” he
said. “But with crime on the
increase everywhere, they’re
going to have to be more urban in
their thinking.”
Security lighting is also gener
ally less prevalent than in cities,
and much of rural Pennsylvania
falls under the protection of Penn
sylvania State Police partrols,
which have wide areas to cover.
Despite the increase in rural
crime, it may be that most of the
incidents are property crimes
rather than attacks against people.
Burglary is at the top of the list.
Here are some tips from the
CCD, Ms. Woodruff and Trooper
Evans on how to discourage burg
lars and thieves and beef up se
curity around your farm and
home.
Lock up: Since most burglars
susceptible to theft or vandalism
Stop
are looking for easy access, good
locks are your best line of defense.
Deadbolt locks on all exterior
doors, and double cylinder locks
on doors with glass panels and
windows, are best.
According to CCD, the locks
should have a one-inch throw (the
length of the bolt when extended
from the door.)
Remember to lock up even dur
ing the day when working around
the outside of your home. A sur
prising number of burglaries occur
in broad daylight. And don’t
forget locks for garages, sheds and
other outbuildings as well as your
house.
Light up; Another major deter
rent to burglars is good security
lighting. To a certain extent, the
relative isolation of many rural
homes and farms can be offset by
outdoor lighting around houses,
garages, sheds and bams.
Lights over driveways and
lanes can also help identify who’s
coming and going. Making your
home look occupied - even when
it’s not! Typically burglars look
for homes and other targets of
opportunity where no one is at
home. Anything you can do to
give the impression there are peo
ple around will discourage
intruders.
While you’re away, the CCD
suggests leaving some lights on or
a radio playing, again, even during
the daytime.
If you’re going to be away for
more than one day, it’s a good
idea to have a neighbor pick up
your mail and newspaper, mow
the lawn or plow out the driveway.
And one of the oldest deterrents
to burglars is still one of the best:
an alert dog which barks at strange
noises. To prevent stealing; If at
all possible, don’t leave equip
ment and implements out in fields
away from buildings and well
lighted areas.
Entire pieces of equipment can
Rural Crime
be towed away or loaded on
trucks, and individual compo
nents, such as batteries, can be
easily removed. According to Ms.
Woodruff, rural thieves have a
new favorite item from parked
equipment: hydraulic cylinders.
If vehicles or implements must
be left in fields, lock them. A
method the military has used for
decades to secure vehicles is to
padlock a chain run through the
steering wheel so the vehicle can’t
be turned.
Such a precaution is especially
effective for small vehicles such
as lawn tractors, Ms. Woodruff
said. Once the front wheels are
turned as far as they will go in one
direction and the steering wheel is
chained, it’s nearly impossible to
push the tractor onto a truck.
Bicycle locking cables work
well also, she said.
The CCD reminds farmers to
keep their vehicles locked when
not in use. The only thing more
frustrating than having some of
your equipment stolen is to have
the thief haul it away in your own
pickup truck.
If you own property away from
your main farm, avoid storing
grain and equipment there. And
don’t forget to padlock gas tanks.
A free tank of gas is often as
tempting as other merchandise,
and it takes longer to realize it’s
missing.
There is a new trend of rural
thefts developing: crop thefts. Ms.
Woodruff said with the current
popularity of woodbuming stoves
and fireplaces, standing timber
and even lumber is often stolen.
Indiana County Christmas tree
grower J.D. Fleming estimates his
farm loses about 250 Christmas
trees to thieves each fall before the
holidays. One year his workers
discovered about one-half acre of
a plantation - about 500 trees - had
been dug up and removed, roots
and all.
To prevent crop thefts, Mr.
Fleming said, it’s best to patrol
fields as much as possible, limit
access roads wherever possible,
and encourage neighbors to keep
an eye on your fields.
Even if the above steps don’t
homestead
A lawn tractor, with Its wheels turned and a bicycle lock
ing cable looped through the steering wheel, Is nearly
Impossible for thieves to push onto a truck.
Equipment ib. P» P P‘
tools and chain saws are easy pickings for thieves.
prevent some of your property
from being stolen, one other mea
sure may help bring it back home.
Operation Identification is a
problem designed to trace stolen
property and return it to its rightful
owner. A special engraving tool is
used to mark an identifying num
ber in a prominent location on
tools and equipment. Ms. Wood-
ruff emphasizes that anyone mark
ing equipment with an engraver
should use their Pennsylvania
Operators/Drivcrs License num
ber. Law enforcement agencies
nationwide have access to those
numbers, she said, and even if a
stolen item is recovered in Cali
fornia, it can be traced back to its
Pennsylvania owner.
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