Theft Prevention Ideas Needed

1370rod

Well-known Member
Our farm fuel is 14 mi from where we live on a quiet gravel road. No one lives close to the acreage. I am loosing faith in trusting people as we have had about $2000 of diesel fuel stolen this summer. We have two 500 gal tanks on the ground and there is really no sure way of keeping people from stealing fuel if they want it bad enough. Locks can be cut, plugs can be removed and hoses can be cut. They must have their own pump used to suck out fuel. Law enforsement is unable to do much in a remote rural area. This is the first year in 20 this has been a problem. I can move them a mile and a half to a neighbors, but what a pain that would be during the busy season. Just looking for different ideas, thanks guys. Rod.
 
No easy answer but some outfits here have a barrel on a truck or trailer and take it to job site then home. Issues are transporting fuel and may need hazmat if large quanity You may need building and lock it up to make it harder as well as camera system
 
Get yourself a shinney aluminum drop in fuel tank with 12V pump, for your PU and transport your fuel from your home site.
Empty the tanks at the remote site and fill with salt water.
I bet you will end the problem, and cause some damage to the thievs.
You might also want to hide your tractors after that.
Loren
 
hard to prevent threft in an unatended area. given time, a thief will steal anything, if he wants it. the only reason he hasn't went their with a rollback to steal the tanks and all is because he can keep comming back to get the fuel.
 
My friend was having a similar problem, but not on your scale.

He left 2 - 5 gal cans of gas by his old tractor, he added sugar to the gas cans.

A few days later he went out to the farm, noticed an old boy that lives down the road about a mile was pulling the motor out of his old car.

Never had any more problems with gas stealing.

What is the maximum gals of fuel you can transport on a small fuel trailer? Better some fuel than no fuel when you go to the farm.

My AR farmer friend: the thieves even stole the Copper wire to the water pumps, however one thief in his area did not go to electricians school, was electrocuted, died on the spot.
 
Bury a section of spring tooth drag upside down in the wheel tracks closest to the tank at the very least they will know You mean Business. as they change their tires the game cam can hopefully get a nice picture for the police of course the way America has been getting these days they may sue for new tires and win.
 
Is there anyway to gate and lock the entrance? Most thieves are too lazy to put much effort into anything.Think i would move the tanks home and haul your fuel.There should be a 2090 showing up at your place this week.
 
We get those shinney square aluminum tanks in for repairs regularly at one welding shop where I work. Square is not a good shape for carrying large quantities of sloshing fuel. They tend to crack along the seams at the corners. If you can find a round one, or one with large radius bent corners, formed end caps and welds on the flat sides, you will be MUCH better off. Internal baffles also help. Basically, get something that looks like the engineered ones on trucks and tractor trailers, avoid the homemade ones on craigslist.
 
Dad once filled his barrel with water and waited in the dark while the thieves filled their car. After their car died he fired a shot over their heads with his 12 gauge and held them there till the sheriff got there. When the thieves told the sheriff that Dad shot at them he said, "Naw, if Art shot at you, you'd be dead." End of problem.
 

When I was a kid there was a story about a farmer who got tired of kids tipping over his out house every Holloween. They would come up from behind it, where the yard light did not shine, and push it over. One year he moved it forward about two feet just before holloween. That seemed to take care of the problem. Today a prank like this would likely cause you more problems than losing some diesel. Well, maybe a manure spreader accident.......

As others posted the trail cameras sound like a good idea - might allow the law to follow up. If it was me I would invest in a fuel truck or trailer.
 
The cameras are a good deterrent.
I use them around my place. Make sure you post some signs informing of the cameras. The cameras may catch em, but then you got another mess. The signs actually do a better job of keeping them out (or sending the bastards down the road to an easier hit). Good luck...slim
 
(quoted from post at 23:28:58 08/09/14) Our farm fuel is 14 mi from where we live on a quiet gravel road. No one lives close to the acreage. I am loosing faith in trusting people as we have had about $2000 of diesel fuel stolen this summer. We have two 500 gal tanks on the ground and there is really no sure way of keeping people from stealing fuel if they want it bad enough. Locks can be cut, plugs can be removed and hoses can be cut. They must have their own pump used to suck out fuel. Law enforsement is unable to do much in a remote rural area. This is the first year in 20 this has been a problem. I can move them a mile and a half to a neighbors, but what a pain that would be during the busy season. Just looking for different ideas, thanks guys. Rod.
 
I know nothing about a game camera' do they record sound? The reason I ask, In central lL small town guy set up a camera, because his garage was being broke into. He caught them . He ended up being in more trouble than the crooks because he recorded video & sound .( sound without them knowing it) at the time a civil rights violation. Years ago when I started in k9 I rented a farmhouse. About 2am guys were stealing farmers gas they just made in their car.. lol....they never came back.
 
Put the tanks on running gears or tandem axle trailers like was suggested and pull them to the neighbors place. You can pull them back to your land when you need them. We pulled full 1000 gallon diesel tanks many miles on the harvest so it doesn't seem like a big imposition to me for you to do the same thing. The normal morning drill was for me to hook up to the fuel tank and pull it to wherever the combines were, seven days a week. Come to think of it, we left the tanks in a farmers yard more than once to avoid theft. Try to keep it out of site in the neighbors yard so someone doesn't drive away with it. It's a small pain for you but it's a big pain to set up trail cams, maintain them and then go through the legal hassle if the cams catch someone. I know you want to catch the thief and I would too. I might even do something I'll regret if I caught the culprits, but having the tanks at the neighbors will ease your mind when you're not at the farm. Jim
 

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