Baldrick Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 I went out for a wander with the rifle this morning, and was met with the sight of one of our rearing pens smashed to bits, and the sight of 29 (I counted them) cock pheasants neatly piled up on some nearby bales, all with their necks wrung. Tyre marks from a non-4x4 in the mud nearby. Some additional pheasants were just run over. The old chap in the cottage next to this copse said he saw one of the local ****** (all are known faces) sneaking around on Monday at dusk, until the old chap's dog scared him off. This is the second instance of the rearing pens being vandalised in several weeks. The first time, only a few birds were killed, but this is a whole lot more calculating. It's also rather threatening: the perps have to drive through the farmyard (and between the farm cottages) to get to the byway that leads past this copse. There's expensive farm tackle in the yard, and a young family living here. Just to add substance to the '***** scum' theory, there's a gypsy encampment/reservation within a mile. The Police have no end of trouble from them. Who's dealt with this scenario before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mungler Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 CCTV is the only way. The farm I shoot has some pretty good kit which is amazing. I can get you the details - it was all self installed but it's not the thirty quid a lump off ebay - it's all IP based and so can be set and connected with wireless network boxes. It records to a cache but does not write to hard drive until a trigger moment / event - you set up trigger zones on the screen (as you look at the CCTV picture you can set "boxes" for areas of movement) - so when a car drives past a particular point or a gate is opened, the system detects movement within the picture and the system triggers which means it writes the last 1 minute prior to the trigger event to hard drive and then keeps recording - this means you capture all activity for say a year on one hard drive. It's all very clever and I probably haven't given it justice. One of their barns got turned over - got the car, reg and faces of all involved but the car was rung (Jag estate which is rare in itself) and the local coppers (thin on the ground and moved around as they are) didn't recognise the faces. CCTV has it's limitations for "unknowns" and where the local bobbies don't have face recognition software at their disposal (unlike that nonsense CSI stuff on telly). The CCTV system showed that it must have been randon / opportunity theft, because going back over the CCTV for the previous months did not show their faces (i.e. casing the place). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08shooter Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 sorry to hear of your losses.gypsies are a funny bunch and its little wonder hitler wanted to exterminate the ones he dealt with.i would say you are on a beaten docket without proof,they are out and out scoundrels and you will have problems proving their guilt.they would be my first suspects too.i would nt ruffle too many feathers as they would be hard to deal with.you would nt want an endless campaign of vandalism from them.they would do it just for fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldrick Posted October 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 What I didn't outline is that I'm one of the residents on the farm, but not the farmer myself. The farm is a tenant farmer, and a tight-fisted one at that. He's rejected any notions of installing lockable gates, so whilst I can see the logic in your CCTV recommendation, Andy, I probably need to find a less costly solution. As you say, I doubt that the local ****** are driving legitimately owned/registered cars. Two colleagues are both sons of Lincolnshire farmers, and they both recommended the same solution - get your own semi-tame ***** to protect the land. Lincs is a hare coursing hotspot, and these two colleagues both had their farm managers and workers attacked when they tried to drive off the ******. They solved it by giving the coursing rights to two reliable ******, in exchange for a nominal sum of money, but crucially, also the ******' agreement that they would keep all other ****** off the land. As the farm manager had been badly beaten up, the tame ****** set about dealing with the rivals, to the point where caravans were burnt to a crisp. However as a solution, it works brilliantly. Perhaps I need to find a couple of ****** to watch this land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 Report it to the police, so that they are aware of what is happening locally. I would certainly work on your Tenant Farmer about getting locked gates (perhaps offer to pay for the chain and padlocks). Where there are farm buildings and machinery I am suprised that his Insurance Company don't insist on them,. Farms I shoot on tend to have gates into yards and other sensitive areas padlocked at night, whilst its not Fort Knox security, its better than an open gate. If you can't afford CCTV, then perhaps a few dummy signs may be some deterrent. The "tame *****" is a bit of a myth in my experience and I know a few who have tried something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldrick Posted October 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 I had heard the tame ***** theory several times before, but it's worked in this one one instance in Lincs. We don't have a ***** infestation on such a scale here in NW Essex, thank God. The fact that there's a 'byway open to all traffic' running through the farm yard and land means that gates can't be installed. But cost is more of an issue. The surveying firm I work for acts for the landlord, so I may investigate whether the landowner would pay for gates and additional security measures, as it constitutes an improvement, rather than a repair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 The Landlord should also be made aware of the incident, as unlawful acts committed on his property may affect his ability to rent out his facilities. Be sure that whoever did this had a good look round while they were there and may be back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbart Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 Put a sign up saying tresspassers will be given a job and made to work for a living,that should scare them off Seriously though the system mungler is on about is mint.I have it on 2 places, work related but wouldnt hesitate to use it on a shoot cos once its up you can more or less forget about it,until something happens.Then you can go back and see what happened.The one i have i can also log on live through ip and view live pictures.It isnt stupid expensive but its like someone who,s house gets burgled,the first thing they do the next day is go out and buy a burglar alarm when if they had one in the first place..And pheasants are harder to replace than a tv. I would steer clear of the ***** protection racket as it will eventually cause more problems than it solves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldrick Posted October 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 Okey doke, I'll investigate the costs of a CCTV set-up, and talk to the farmer and the landowner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshotkiller Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 steady on mate were not all bad you know just like every one else there is good and bad i,ve never stole anything in my life and what you said about hitler exterminating my people is damn right rude and racist i don,t poach and have 3 permissions where i respect the farmers wishes i dont wanna cause a stir on here but i found you all very welcoming but your attitude that WERE ALL SCUM really is a kick in the teeth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 I'm afraid my experience of ****** is very bad. a few years ago about 200 invaded our rugby club. we wanted to chuck them off but the police said we couldn't use force ; and anyway they knew half of the ****** had illegal guns (though the old bill weren't prepared to take action against them). We had to get a court order and it took 2 weeks to get them of. they left 5 dead dogs, a sick horse that the rspca put down and hundreds of sacks of rubbish including used nappies. they'd used the back wall of the clubhouse as a toilet, can't think of a good word to say about the filthy scum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustyfox Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 It could of been anyone who did this, dont jump to conclusions on who did it unless you have clear evidence. Why dont you get those sensor things I dont know what they are called but I think they are cheaper. anyway I try and explain it. these sensors have a laser beam which you set up on a gateway once somebody passes through the sensor the device phones you up or text messages you to say that someone has gone through. Anyway you need two of these one about two foot of the ground and the other one about five foot above the ground, if one of them is broken it probably is just a fox or sumthing but if both of them is broken you got people in there. I will try and look it up for you so you know what i mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshotkiller Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 theres differeent types of ****** as you put it english irish welsh scots were not all the same obviously if thats what you think nothing i say will change your views and obviously your implying were all the same lots of us just get on with our lives nor do we do any harm to any one most have steady jobs its the few who tarnish the rest and i for one am proud to call myself a traveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berettaman1 Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 theres differeent types of ****** as you put it english irish welsh scots were not all the same obviously if thats what you think nothing i say will change your views and obviously your implying were all the same lots of us just get on with our lives nor do we do any harm to any one most have steady jobs its the few who tarnish the rest and i for one am proud to call myself a traveller If you dont do the the things that the usual travellers do then why say you belong to the group? No one has given you the grief that ////// everyone off,? No one on this site /myself included, has slagged you off bud, calm down, keep your head down, and keep stumm!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneshotkiller Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 it is slagging me off though same as if some one slagged off the english i,m sure you would take offence i used to get all the racist comments at school about being a traveller and it strikes a chord its racist for want of a better word and i find having my race called scum offencive so why should i keep stumm ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huntster Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 it is slagging me off though same as if some one slagged off the english i,m sure you would take offence i used to get all the racist comments at school about being a traveller and it strikes a chord its racist for want of a better word and i find having my race called scum offencive so why should i keep stumm ! do u keep your yogger in the varda ? !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted October 29, 2007 Report Share Posted October 29, 2007 I think its fair to say that not all travellers are the same and this point has been made on here many times, by many different people. This thread will now close as Baldrick has had some good advice and the thread has run its course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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