A spike in crime on rural properties in regional South Australia has police concerned that thieving criminals are targeting isolated and vulnerable locations during the holiday season.
Stock, tools and diesel are some of the goods reported stolen from farming properties across the state's Lower South East in the past week.
Limestone Coast Police operations manager Inspector Campbell Hill said reduced farming activity over the holiday season made properties a prime target for criminals.
"There's obviously a lot of work that shuts down across industries in different areas, but that doesn't mean that the crooks are going to stop," Inspector Hill said.
"Because we know that there are lower rates of people on farming properties, they're even more isolated than usual and the dark side to that is that we know the criminals are aware of that, and they will exploit it."
Inspector Hill said one incident in recent weeks involved the theft of a significant number of cattle from a property on Rocky Camp.
"This wasn't a case of just a small number of cattle, this type of stock theft would have taken some pretty good planning to execute," he said.
"That was over a period of weeks in the lead up to Christmas and we are still investigating that at the moment."
In a separate incident, a shed was broken into at Senior and a number of tools and push bikes were stolen.
"Interestingly some of that property was recovered in Sherwood, so investigations are continuing into that incident also," he said.
The latest incident involved the theft of diesel from a rural property at Thornley.
Inspector Hill said there was no indication that any of the incidents were linked.
"While there's not any obvious link at the moment, we are certainly overlaying various levels of intelligence and other reports that we have got to build up a better picture," he said.
Borders reopening trigger crime spike
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Limestone Coast Police noticed a drop in rural-related crime in the South East region.
"During the COVID lockdowns, and during the border restrictions, we … had a really increased rate of police in the Limestone Coast," Inspector Hill said.
"I think that probably had a very natural crime-reduction impact."
However, with the border open to Victoria, Inspector Hill believed that might have attributed to the recent spike.
"Obviously the overall visibility of police has somewhat reduced in the region and we're starting to see a few of these offences now," he said.
"We're glad people are reporting them to us because it allows us to adequately plan for it."
Prevention is the key
Inspector Hill encouraged land owners to think about how they could better protect their properties from criminals.
"If people haven't got fences and gates locked, if there's no CCTV in operation or signs warning that there is, unfortunately criminals won't be deterred and they [land owners] could become a victim," he said.
"If you have concerns, get in touch with the local police and we're more than happy to come out to a property and go for a drive around to provide some of that crime prevention advice."
