Several farmers I know have kicked around the idea of using infrared trail/game cameras to capture photos of people stealing from them.
So far, the only one I know who has followed through on the plan is a friend in Sweden, Matts Pettersson, who posted this photo on my favorite ag forum, NewAgTalk.Com.
These two meatballs (Swedish, that is) were stealing gas from Matts’s tractor on his family’s farm, which is about 50 miles west of Stockholm.
Matts doesn’t recognize either man but has contacted the police and also distributed the images among friends and area farmers.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the right time on the camera, so the time stamp doesn’t correlate to the night when the theft occurred. Keep that in mind if you try this, since it adds to the weight of the evidence.
Here’s a sample of the images his camera recorded:
I had fuel stolen on three different occasions on a remote farm this summer. I purchased a game cam, took some steel plate and made a tamper proof box that I could weld in place. Fortunately I had no thieves during harvest.