Arkansas Farms Fat Targets For Cultivated Crime

As she pulled into one of her soybean fields during last year’s harvest, Crystal Lewis could see something from the height of her combine that she hadn’t been able to see from pickup level.

In the middle of the field, the soybeans were gone. Missing. Vanished.

Actually, they had already been harvested — by someone else.

“Somebody had walked their combine down a levee and cut out to the middle of my field so you couldn’t see it,” Lewis said. “They cut about five acres and got about $3,000 in beans. They cut a hopper-full and left.”

The field in question abuts a levee, and the thief had used that levee to gain entry to the field unnoticed, and because the stolen beans came from the middle of the field the theft wasn’t noticeable before harvest.

Lewis contacted authorities, but they were unable to locate the beans, and even though there was a suspect, there was not enough proof for action.

“You can’t put a person on a combine,” she said.

Tracking such a theft is difficult because one soybean pretty much looks like another soybean, and grain elevators and cooperatives trust that someone who shows up with a truckload of grain is selling grain that he or she owns.

The targeted field is in Pulaski County, and because of crop insurance policies, Lewis hadn’t insured that field. Insurance in the county bases payments off a county average much lower than Lewis’ history. The premiums would have cost more than she would have received in a payout. She was able to make up the loss, though, through a bumper crop.

Though crop theft of this kind is unusual, it is not unheard of, nor is it remarkably rare for a tractor or combine or large truck to come up missing.

More common, though, are thefts of ATVs, tools and batteries off power units. Copper theft is pervasive.

“Our biggest thing is what they call scrap metal” theft, said Arkansas County Sheriff Alan Cheek. “I don’t like to call it that, because it’s not scrap, but it is when they sell it.”

Copper theft in some parts of the state has been on the increase in recent years, while in the past few months the price of copper per pound has fallen to $2.59, according to a recent story on agricultural copper theft in the Jonesboro Sun. When the price hovers around $3, the copper on farm equipment — often sitting unguarded in vacant fields with connecting roads — becomes an attractive target for thieves, the Sun reported.

Cheek said irrigation well wiring is a favorite target for thieves.

Chief Deputy Rick Thomas of Craighead County agreed with the wire theft commonality, but farmers aren’t without resources to combat such theft. Row-crop farmer George Willoughby, profiled in the Sun article, has turned to an electronic sensing and warning device called a WireRat to deter thieves, who have hit the irrigation equipment on his 6,000-acre spread and stolen copper wire multiple times.

The device detects when a piece of wire is being cut and sends an alarm to the farm owner and local law enforcement.

“This is a good way to put a stop to it,” Willoughby said.

Thomas added that in northeast Arkansas diesel thefts are among the most common ag-related theft. The deputy said that a typical haul could reach 300 gallons. Thomas added that many stolen batteries also end up at scrap metal dealers, as well as pawn shops.

Capt. Carl Minden of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department said that he expects at least some agriculture thefts go unreported. He added that crime victims should always report the thefts.

Joe Mosby of Conway reported that thefts at a family farm north of Maumelle have included radiators, batteries and welding equipment.

But row-crop farmers aren’t the only victims.

The state’s timber industry faces its share of theft, too.

“During 2013, law enforcement officers conducted arrests on felony cases and recovered more than $15,743 in restitution to landowners,” said Anna Swaim, communications director of the Arkansas Forestry Association. “Efforts of law enforcement officers, through citations and suppression costs, resulted in the collection of $2,972.80 in fines and $55,460 in suppression costs, totaling $74,175.80.”

Crimes involving timberland include arson, timber theft, illegal dumping and theft of, and vandalism to, logging equipment.

“These crimes generate annual losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars to landowners and the timber industry,” Swaim said. “The Arkansas Forestry Association (AFA) is committed to reducing the number of cases through its Witness Reward Program, which provides rewards up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons involved in these crimes.”

The Arkansas Forestry Commission has the authority to appoint employees as certified state law enforcement officers to investigate dumping, wildfires, timber theft, and logging equipment theft and vandalism. Each AFC district office has rangers and foresters who handle misdemeanor dumping and fire cases, and there are three full-time criminal investigators who investigate a variety of cases statewide, Swaim said.