Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Annoyed

Some low life broke down 2 fences at the stables where we keep our horses.
They hitched our horse trailer up and towed it away (ours was parked nearest to the fence). We have now found 2 of the 3 security devices, fitted to the trailer, discarded in a nearby verge. They had been sawn off with an angle grinder.

The picture shows the empty space where the trailer should be and the restored fence. What the picture does not show is the ton or so of concrete beams that have been placed against the fence in an attempt to prevent the next attempt. By tomorrow, there will be more concrete beams.



The good news is:
1) They didn’t steal any horses
2) They were not disturbed so no-one got hurt
3) Leicestershire police think they have our trailer. Two officers saw an unlit vehicle stopped and, when they got out of their car to investigate, were driven at at high speed. The trailer was left behind but, and this is the good news on this item, the police officers weren’t hit. There are recent examples where officers have been killed.

All we now need is absolute confirmation that they have our trailer and to get if back from the storage compound.
So far we are down:
£150 release fee from the compound (Crouch recovery)
Any storage costs
£150 for a new wheel clamp
£120 for a new locking bar for the other side

And we still don’t know if the trailer is damaged. Our insurance on the trailer (£500 a year) will cover damage to the trailer and replacing security devices but won’t cover storage or recovery.

Mrs F is now paranoid about security and worried about the possibility that someone will try to steal our horses.

Apparently, there is a major upsurge in rural crime - be careful folks.

Bar stewards.
I am glad at least no one was hurt or horses stolen.
I sympathise

+1

Utter Scum.

Bugger.

Sounds like you wouldn't want to be there to cross them if they are willing to drive down the Police!

Jeez Paul, that would have been a shock to the system.

I am afraid there may be a whole lot more of that to come as the result of the number of folk who suffer greatly in financial terms as the result of this crisis turning to crime... Stay safe and take care if lugging concrete beams about, all too easy to damage yourself and might make social distancing difficult...

Hope you get the trailer back OK and the police can advance their enquiries with a degree of success.

Good that no-one was hurt and you will likely get your trailer back .... thieves are utterly blatant about it these days ....no shame or remorse and even if they are eventually caught any punishment will be minor ..... the advent of powerful Li-on grinders has made most conventional security measures ineffective..... sad that you look like being saddled with the consequential expenses. (No pun intended)

K

Glad you got your trailer back.
A couple of ideas if I may, and sorry if you already do.
Paint your post code on the roof in huge letters, so that they fill the roof space, do it with many coats that way it’ll show up even if it’s painted over. Makes it easier to spot by police helicopter or easier to prove it’s yours.Clearly painting the side panels and ramp with your post code also makes them less desirable to thieving scum. This also applies to caravans etc even if you have a tracker.
A big equestrian crime is saddlery/ tack and sundries which is often kept in wooden sheds etc. See if you can get an old chest freezer, put a couple of strong padlocks on it and you have a very heavy secure locker. They also make great mouse proof bins to store sacks of feed.
Again, I’m sorry if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs.

Glad you've got it back.

I've got a very basic tracker on my Morgan - consists of a very old Mobile Phone with GPS, and an auxiliary battery which gives me about 5 days. At the moment, as it's not being used I take it out and charge it manually, but I have the advanatage that it's rigged up to the battery aswell, so will charge when I drive it.

I've got a very basic giffgaff SIM in it which costs me £6 a month.

I use a tracker app on my phone, and it notifies me by text when it moves, tracks its movement/route and gives me a fairlyaccurate GPS location. It also works as a WiFi Hotspot if I want

Thanks for this. Mrs F has already had the post code suggestion made to her but I hadn’t thought of the chest freezer idea.

On the plus side, a lovely PC from Leicestershire police just telephoned to confirm the serial number and we now have absolute confirmation that our trailer has been recovered. It cannot be released until they have forensics - which have to wait 72 hours because of potential Covid contamination but that is a small problem for us.

When I had a caravan I used one of these http://www.jsbhublock.co.uk/
At the time it was claimed that no-one had lost a caravan fitted with one of these as they resist angle grinders and oxy acetylene removal attempts