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Farm Watch is all about keeping our rural community safe.

It's a nice cool Saturday morning and a perfect time to catch up on what's happening in our rural community.

Burglars Return:
Last week was a bad week. After a brief 3 week Hiatus, we were hit county wide by the storage container burglars. They followed the same M.O (Cop talk for method of operation), cutting off locks and using torches to cut through the connex boxes. We know that they victimize our farms and ranches between 11 P.M and 4 A.M.
Folks, remember to call in suspicious vans, trucks and cars hanging out during those times. You can use 911 for that. As a matter of fact, late Thursday night, a Farm Watch member likely scared off our burglars by calling in a suspicious van in the area of South Mountain Road near Santa Paula. Sheriff's Units swarmed the area. We didn't have any burglaries that night but we do know the suspects are using the vans and trucks as roving lookouts while their crew of 3 to 5 thugs walk through the farm and ranch areas on foot to avoid detection.

Listen to a story about a man named Jed...Oil, Oil, Oil:
Our local thieves are CONTINUED »

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Ventura County Sheriff Farm Watch.
Protecting our agricultural community.

We are joined by 19 new members, including UC Davis Ext and our local Ventura County Citrus Nursery supplier.
For those of you who just joined us welcome aboard. In brief, we will send you updates on farm crime trends, prevention tips and you have joined a virtual network between public safety and many great organizations including the Ventura County Agricultural Association, Cattleman's Association, Farm Bureau, Fire Safe Councils. there are too many to list in this email as the Sheriff's Department's Farm Watch network links over 550 farm, ranches, nurseries and oil production sites in the county.

Well it is a scorcher out there as I type this Saturday afternoon. Get those drippers going, stay cool and take a break to read "FARM WATCH"

Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties have been plagued with by a criminal ring who for the last 4 months have used our rural farms and ranches in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as targets.

Farm Watch is also CONTINUED »

July 21, 2010 - Citrus growers in California and Arizona hope to get a helping hand from recently introduced federal legislation intended to aid, through research, the citrus industry's battle against invasive pests and diseases. The bill would divert a portion of federal tariff revenue derived from imported citrus products, including fresh fruit and frozen concentrate citrus juice products, to finance the Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund.

California industry groups including the Citrus Research Board, California Citrus Mutual, the California Citrus Quality Council and Sunkist Growers joined in expressing their appreciation for the sponsors' efforts and encouraging the rapid passage of the legislation by Congress. "The citrus industry owes a debt of gratitude to the sponsors of the bill including Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)," said Claire Smith of Sunkist. "We are grateful to the bill's sponsors for their bipartisan efforts to protect the nation's major citrus-producing states."

The most recent, and most deadly, threat on the horizon comes from Huanglongbing (HLB), a devastating disease for which there is no known remedy. The disease is spread by an otherwise harmless vector - a small imported pest known as the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP).

HLB, which is CONTINUED »

Hello Farm Watch members.
We have received many calls from Farm Watch members who can see and smell the Camarillo/Somis brush fire.

Lets get you an update so you are in the know...

It started at 303 P.m and the brush fire is in the Camarillo Heights area near Ocean View Drive. This 50 acre fire s primary the south facing hill sides of the heights.

Farm Watch has attached a photo of the area for reference.

Currently there are 250 firefighters, VCFD hand crews, fire trucks, 2 helicopters and 2 air tankers on scene.

The Ventura County Fire Department and Sheriff's Department have set up a Unified Command to deal with the fire.

Residents are encouraged to stay in their homes and let fire equipment into the area.

Large animal owners in the Groves Pl.area of Somis should begin preparations in the event that evacuations are ordered.

Closures: West and East Loop Drives are closed, Mesa Rd. is open to residents only.

You can check Ventura County Fire (VCFD) updated web site at http://www.fire.countyofventura.org/ for more info.

be safe Farm Watch...

Your friend Tim

Tim Hagel
Captain
805-947-8189 text and cell

Ventura Sheriff Department
Bob Brooks Sheriff

Welcome to Farm Watch.
It has been a busy last three weeks. The Ag-crooks have been pushing against us hard.
Before we get started, we added 15 new farmers and nurseries.
The first question we usually get emailed is, what is Farm Watch?
Simply put, Farm Watch is a crime fighting partnership between you, Law Enforcement, Fire, Farm Bureau and County Agricultural Commissioner Office.
E-Alerts are sent out for emergency situations such as fires and floods and with State Wide budget cuts, Sheriff's Departments across the state are faced with cut backs. Ventura County is no different.
In fact, a good example in Ventura County is an average historic ratio of one deputy for every 30 to 200 square miles of rural farm land. Ventura County Farm Watch came to the rescue as a system built on exponential multipliers.
What's that? ...Farm Watch has a multiplier effect that connects local rural deputies to more than 500 ranches, farms and nurseries in a 1800 square mile area. In a sense it is like having over 500 deputies helping to prevent crime and identify thieves in the same area.
Does it work? You bet, this same system is used by the military in our nations' fight against terrorism overseas.
Let’s get started.....
FIRE SEASON:
Make sure you are preparing your ranch plans, contact your local station and give them a ranch tour of protection zones.
CALL MONITOR:
Go to our website at VCSD.org and watch our live 911 call list, you can see why deputies are on calls in your neighborhood.
We haven't seen a three week period filled with so much Ag crime in a long time.
A local burglary ring is hitting us at an epidemic level. A few weeks ago we sent out an alert to all our farmers. It seems these crooks have a thirst for unattended seagoing storage containers used by most farmers.
We can catch them with your help.
Farm Watch Ten Point Plan of Attack:
#1 Prevention, Prevention, Prevention. Face the sea going storage box doors towards areas open to view of the caretaker, residence or any area where a deputy or farm worker can see the doors. Last week, the criminal ring used cutting torches to sever the locks and half inch steel protective metal shrouds. sadly, this was all within 150 feet of a occupied caretaker house. They did it late at night. the doors were facing away from the house and out of view. That farmer is getting a crane in to reverse the storage box so the doors face the house. the Sheriff's Department wants to thank our farm watch member for sharing his experience and simple crime fighting tip.
#2 If you have two storage boxes. face the door towards one another with just enough room to park a tractor or truck nightly between them and block the opening of the doors. Have your farm mechanic (usually you...) install a simple hidden kill switch so they cant hot wire the tractor or truck. This system worked on an attempt theft last week and at worst case slows them down.
#3. There are a new breed (no pun for our cattle ranchers) of locks made specifically for our common Connex style sea-going storage containers. The cost is between $60 and $80 dollars per padlock. They are resistant to bolt cutters and the crooks really have to spend some time on the ranch. The more time they spend, the more likely they are going to get caught. Google "sea going container locks" and you will find plenty of vendors.
#4. Use Technology. Lo-Jack offers farm packages for radio and GPS tracking of your tractors and trucks if stolen. Our rural Sheriff's police cars are equipped to work with Lo-Jack. Also available is Dewalt's Mobil Lock which offers remote sea-going storage box security systems that will email or text three addresses via a cell phone. local Security companies offer similar remote monitoring. This type of technology works in areas that have cell phone coverage. Can you hear me now? There are many other systems, let us know, and give us feed back to help one another...
#5. Contact Detective Ray Dominguez @ ray.dominguez@ventura.org or Tim Hagel at tim.hagel@ventura.org If you have farms, nurseries or ranches that have no caretakers or workers available at night and are using these storage boxes fro your fertilizer, or equipment. We can set up a plan and site visit to familiarize your local deputy so they can respond quicker with local knowledge of your operation, gates and combos.
#6. The Sheriff's Department will do a free on site, theft prevention visit to give you tips on farm theft exposures and remedies. Last week, deputies did three of these farm surveys and no doubt will make a difference in stopping future thefts.
#7. Mark your equipment with engravers. Record serial numbers of pumps, generators, chainsaws,weedeaters and welders. We are working with all our Ag equipment repair and parts houses and they can also alert us if suspicious persons come in for repairs on stolen equipment.
#8. Watch Craig's List for stolen equipment. Email Detective Dominguez ray.dominguez@ventura.org with "too good to be true" deals. We can set up a buy-sting and find where they are fencing your stolen equipment.
#9. Report suspicious vehicles on or near farms, particularly at night time. record license plates. If you see a truck on your farm roads at night with bolt cutters, they are likely our crooks. We can arrest them before they do a storage box burglary.
#10. Most important, share Farm Watch with neighbors. We need to stick together as a community.
Craig's List:
Attached is a local Craig's List scam. Don't fall for these tractor and UTV scams. They will go victimize other areas if they don't get any hits from Ventura County Farmers.
Farm Theft Summary:
Dufau Road. Burglars broke in and stole power equipment.
South Mountain @ Balcom. Many farms were hit in the last week. We went out four days in a row to different farms to take reports and collect evidence. We were able to recover some great evidence and have confirmed that these farms and ranches are all getting hit by the same burglar that is plaguing Santa Paula and Camarillo, Somis.
Edison Electric (SCE) Burglars stole a giant roll of electric wire and used heavy equipment. The wire was recovered miles away hidden on a farm orchard. Diligent Farm Watchers helped us and SCE out.
Berlywood Drive, Somis. Diesel theft. The suspect Jose Vasques was arrested in a stolen vehicle.
Brennan Road, Moorpark area. A nursery had the office was broken into and computers stolen along with other power machinery. The suspects used bolt cutters to get through a fence.
Redondo Ave, Santa Rosa Valley. A local guesthouse was broken into but the thieves left with nothing.
Tierra Rejada Valley. A horse ranch had a vehicle broken into and personal items were stolen.
South Las Posas Road. Oxnard Plains. 200 gallons of diesel stolen from a farm truck pony tank. The suspect was in a Chevy Astro van, unknown color .
vehicle.
Laguna Road. Farm workers caught a suspect stealing 12 volt batteries. He was apprehended because they were quick to call 911.
Santa Paula. Aliso Canyon, Foothill Road. Ranchers and farmers were hit by the same theft bandits victimizing us in Somis and South Mountain. They broke into many seagoing Connex type storage containers on different properties.
Piru. A rural business was broken into at night while workers were on the property. The stealth crooks got away with farm property.
MAP:
Take a look at the map that Sheriff Crime Analyst Karen Brown put together for us. Nearly every burglary or theft was a storage shed or barn. We haven't seen it this bad for eons. We have CSI and Karen working on trying to narrow down any clues we can get. It appears that our crooks are hitting any night of the week between 10 pm and morning daylight.
All of you pulled together when we were getting hit with metal thefts. We need to do the same now and find these burglars. A theft from one is a theft from all...
Be safe Farm Watch..
Tim Hagel

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CRIME MAP: Sheriff's Crime Analyst Karen Brown has produced a great map (attached in PDF) of our last few weeks rural crime. A picture is worth a thousand words and her crime fighting maps help us keep track of rural crime countywide. Take a peak at the map.
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For our newest members, Once again, : We send out a Farm Watch email newsletter about once every 3 weeks. We will also send out Farm Watch Alerts as needed. The alerts are important communications about Disaster, Fire and Theft warnings.

We gained 12 new members this week. Sign up your friends by forwarding this Sheriff's Newsletter to them.

ASPHALT THEFT;
Crooks out in the Oxnard plains broke into a yard by cutting the gate locks and stole a large commercial asphalt roller. Don't forget, we need you to apply your owner numbers engraved somewhere on the frame. Use the letters CDL followed by your driver's license number. Any cop in California will know what that is and will be able to contact you later when recovered.

PICKER BAGS:
A local Fillmore farmer in the area of Telegraph and Olive thwarted an avocado theft when he found numerous picker bags full and stockpiled for late pickup by thieves. He was vigilant about inspecting his rows during this late picking season. Keep and eye out every day. remember your not the only one size picking fruit.

SANTA ROSA VALLEY:
A local nursery was broken into and the thieves stole 2 chainsaws and a large toolbox. they broke into the nursery office.

WOOLEY ROAD SYPHON:
A local farm ran dry in 3 CONTINUED »

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Welcome to Farm Watch! You are one of our 500 rural and agricultural partners linked together, preventing crime and maintaining safe farming, ranching and nursery communities.

Lets get started. This was an exciting three weeks for new members. We just added 15 farms and nurseries to our group.

Can you believe May is already here.

Woof Woof:

Every day I leave for work from my farm at about 6:00 in the morning. Our Lab-Shepard Mutt is always waiting on the porch, ready to be petted, but sleepy after a long night of chasing raccoons, coyotes and the occasional orchard bear (Another story).

A Farm Watch Member on Bradley Road in Somis has a more dramatic story of his farm dog which recently saved his family’s life.

Last month, a gang member went on a rampage and car jacked a driver at gunpoint on Bradley Road. The suspect set up a make shift roadblock to steal the car.

After a large dragnet by Sheriffs and CHP he was quickly caught on a nearby farm.

In the past, we talked about the extraordinary help that a local farm worker contributed in leading to a suspect’s capture.

What we did not expand on was the fact that it was a Farm Watch member’s dog, which attempted to stop or dissuade the armed suspect. During the encounter, the farm dog was shot. In piecing the scenario together it appears the dog interrupted the armed assailant as he hopped a fence and entered the ranch area.

The family was sound to sleep. The suspect proved he could easily have assaulted the family had the dog not protected them. We have seen this situation numerous times in the past and it really lends credence to “a dog really is our best friend.” Our hero, has now fully recovered from the life threatening wounds. On his farm, he is king. Any biscuits for our hero Farm Watch K-9 can be dropped off at the Fillmore Sheriff/Police Station, 524 Sespe Avenue, Fillmore.

Avocados:

We are in our prime 87 million CONTINUED »

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On behalf of Sheriff Brooks, welcome to our April 2010 Farm Watch Newsletter.
Heard a Siren?
Do you want to see where the police action is? Hey Farm Watch, now you don't have to wait for the news on television!
Fire up that Blackberry, I-Phone or computer and tune it into WWW.VCSD.org
Sheriff Brooks has just launched one of the most cutting edge interactive Police websites in California. Our home web page now has a listing of the calls your deputies are on. You can instantly see what Sheriff Action is happening in your area. This is high-tech automatic web-publishing of our 911 calls as they happen.
Note: There is a small time delay in the 911 call-for-service postings for security reasons to make sure we don't compromise safety for our citizens or officers.
Santa Rosa Valley:
Nearly 3 tons of fertilizer was stolen last week in Santa Rosa Valley. The suspects stole pallets of Peters 15-3-25 fertilizer. Contact Detective Ray Dominguez if you have any tips. Ray.dominguez@ventura.org
Be on the Look Out:
Once again, some scrap metal thieves working the Santa Clara River Valley area. The suspects are driving a white Ford pickup with a red camper shell. If confronted, they will tell farm workers that they have permission. Their story falls apart quick when questioned about farm ownership etc... Lets keep this type of theft in check.
Trash Dump:
Deputies have been called out to a CONTINUED »

Behind the Scenes: Today we’d like to thank the Sheriff’s Special Services Crime Analyst Unit. Karen Brown supplies Farm Watch with all our crime data. Karen and others in the Unit work hard to keep our rural community safe. The Unit has included some new farm maps and charts in this email that include the entire county.

Farm Worker Alert: This just happen last week: A group of four criminals stole money from Ventura County farm workers and Spanish speaking residents in a California lottery scam. Theses criminals single out Ventura County residents who use Spanish as their strongest language. They prefer female victims of adult or elderly age, but on occasion will prey on males.

They are excellent actors and you will never know that all four are connected. When you read the story, remember they change it up once a while mixing in fictitious IRS Agents, Fictitious Notaries and Fictitious Attorneys.
Here is the scene: They hit while your farm workers are in a shopping center, parking lot, picking up kids from school or public building, they are approached by a Spanish-speaking female.

On occasion they use a male. The male or females are actors, and will tell the farm worker that he or she just found a State Lottery ticket and that they think it was the winning number.

Next, a passerby will approach as a random person and unknown to your farm worker. Usually the passerby will be well dressed as a businessman or woman. They will speak in Spanish to make the victim comfortable.

The two actor-criminals will CONTINUED »