Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Irrigation Tube Thieves- AAAARGH

You won't believe this, but crooks are cruising the farms in my area, stealing aluminum irrigation tubes. We have lost a dozen or so off of our farm, as have our neighbors, and farmers ten or so miles away.

We have taken to engraving them with names, spray painting them, anything for identification. Scrap yards, sheriff, etc. have all been notified, but so far no arrests.

What kind of sleazeball crooks would steal something people are dependendent on for their livelihood? To me it's the absolute worst kind of theft.

If I catch them in the act, which I probably won't, it will likely be the last time they try it- at least off my farm.

Kill them.

GTC

They have been doing it here for a long time. Also cutting the electric wire from the fuse box to the rice wells. Lots of expense for farmers because of the amount of irrigation that goes on here. miles

Sounds like the Federal and State government. You sure they haven't decided on a more direct approach to taxation?

Claymore mines.Shotgun with trip wire.Minimum a good thumping!!!!!

Probably NATO they're using them for rocket body components...easy to find those thieves just look for the blue helmets!!

The worst one here in Columbus ..
last year,... the bastids swiped the refridgeration coils off the unit for St Andrew's Homeless shelter's kitchen.

They got a couple bucks of copper and left the biggest homeless kitchen in the city without a fridge or freezer!


It was replaced by generaous folks and is now gaurded by razor wire and cameras!

my great uncle once whopped my ass for shooting rabbits with a 22 that were hiding inside his irrigation pipes.

well here in Az they cut the catalatic convertors off your truck while its parked in the driveway!

we had them cut the copper backflow preventors off the waterlines to our church - they got like 25$ for them and it cost us 1500 to replce- i'd of give them 25 to leave them alone - lol

Lots of farmers here are getting their pivot sprinklers ready for spring and finding all the copper wiring gone. VERY expensive to replace. It's all in the scrap market.

They passed some kind of law in NY now that you have to provide a photo ID when turning in scrap metal. I know several years ago that contractors were hiring private security guards on some job sites because copper pipes were being ripped out of new construction sometimes the same day they were installed.

That crap is going on everywhere, here in Louisville, they've done all of the above, and including copper pipe/wiring in vacant houses, etc. Catalytic converters, too.

Lost every Rainbird 30 off of a quartermile wheel line one night last year. Grateful that I didn't lose the pump also. Had to replace all of them with plastic ones.

Fokkers

When I was doing alot of rock crushing and screening, we had all the SO cords stolen. Lost production and replacing the SO cords was a huge loss. We then hired a armed night guard.

I shot the schidt out of a truck belonging to some of our local wetbacks as they were trying to pull my 3" handline apart one night last fall. I hope I hit them, too. They were never caught, but word must have spread through their community. I don't even see them cruising down our road anymore after that.

Florida now requires a state photo ID, photograph, tag number and thumb print to scrap anything but alum. cans.

Two guys were cutting up Alum. light poles after Charley hit here.

All thieves are sleazeballs.

Can you arrange to have a trail camera or video camera to monitor your irrigation pipes out in the field?

Dig a deep drainage ditch around your fields and then place boards with nails pointed up to give flat tires at the entry points to your fields.

Couple years ago the LEO's caught some guys that were stealing the aluminum guard rails and hand rails off of some forest service bridges,now that takes balls.

you must of been using one of them CARBOn-15 from bushmaster.

Just 2 weeks ago the local PoPo caught a guy (homeless guy living under the bridge) cutting pieces of the handrail going across a major bridge and selling it to a scrapyard right on the south end of that bridge. When they pulled the records from the scrap yard they found the guy had scrapped over 300 lbs. of that same handrail over the past year. You would have thought someone would have noticed. He was cutting 3' pieces out with a hacksaw during the night.