Thieves take pick
This is all farmer Louis Archer managed to salvage after thieves raided his farm last week. (Pictures by Maria Bradshaw)
By by Maria Bradshaw | Wed, June 23, 2010 - 12:00 AM
YET ANOTHER farmer at Gibbons Boggs, Christ Church, has lost thousands of dollars in crops and supplies to thieves.
Louis Archer’s three-acre farm was hit every day between last week Sunday and Thursday.
But he said last Thursday was the most devastating, since the thieves took a large portion of his crop which were ready for picking and left a trail of destruction behind.
They picked most of the sweet peppers, beans and cucumbers, stole more than $1 500 in chemicals, took all the bags and what they could not take they emptied the contents of the bottles.
“They coming in at me every other night,” said a visibly upset Archer. “I ask G4S to give me some security. They came and look at the place and drove off. I ask Star Security. They came and said they couldn’t help me if I didn’t have electricity. I ask the police to just come and check around the place – they can’t do that.
“I ask the police one question – if I have the right to protect my property and up to this day they have not answered me.”
Archer said he usually sprayed the vegetables with a chemical which is poisonous if ingested under 24 hours.
“Usually, if the thieves steal the crops when I spray, I would put out a message warning people, but I done with that.”
Archer was also angry with what he called the lack of response from the police.
“I called Oistins Police Station last week, and they told me they were coming. I waited for four hours and then I saw a jeep drive up. I started to walk towards the jeep and the officers look at me and did not even ask my name. They just drove off and then I get a call that they want me to come to that station. I am not going there to waste four hours just to give them a statement. They don’t care!”
The 60-year-old said he was not the only one in Gibbons suffering from praedial larceny.
“Regardless of what happens, my staff have to get paid. But nobody don’t pay me, so how long do I stand these losses?
One of his female workers, who did not want to be named, said she too, was tired of the constant stealing of the crops.
“Mr Archer is a very good man. He pays us every day – even if the crops are stolen he pays us and he is the only farmer that does that. This is unfair that after we work so hard the people come and thief all the crops before we can reap them.”
Yesterday, they salvaged two bags of cucumbers and a bag of sweet peppers.
Last week, another farmer Elmore Duncan said thieves stole six of his pigs.
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As I said before these farmers need to arm themselves, install a secret security surveillance system, and any thief caught on his property should be taken away by an undertaker, since the police doesn’t want to protect these farmers or search for these thieves, it’s time for these farmers to take the law into their own hands, the irony of all this is that after a few thieves have been shot dead, they would be trying to bring the full weight of the law down on the farmer, along with long prison sentences while the thieves continue their stealing without any chance of being caught by the police or prosecuted for their crimes.
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Comment LinkThese people will continue to steal because they are people out there who are willing to buy from them. We as members of the public love to get things cheap never asking where these produce came from. What if this farmer had sprayed his produce with chemicals and the thieves sold them the next day what would happen to the people who bought them not knowing the background of where these produce were harvested etc. Probably all vendors of vegetables meat etc should be license, and should have to produce invoices showing where they have bought they produce from.
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Comment LinkIf that was one of the big buisness stores that had been raided during the night the place would have been crawling with police or if you had shot someone stealing you would have CID whisking you off for processing.
Predial larceny…..police don’t care, Min of Ag don’t care. It is part of the cost of producing food & then people cry because prices to high.
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Comment LinkFarmers should be allowed to have license firearms, a bunch of good for nothing people have been taking away the livelihood of these farmers for way to long, it is time that this issue is looked at with the seriousness it deserves.
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