Fed-up with continued thefts from his and neighbouring farms, Ohaupo farmer Arnold Reekers was forced into action in the early hours of Sunday morning when he heard his quad bike beeping as the thieves attempted to hot-wire the vehicle.
And despite having a knife pulled on him by the would-be thieves, Reekers wouldn’t hesitate to do it again saying continued thefts would drive farmers to take up arms despite pleas from the police for people not to take matters into their own hands.
«I respect the police and where they are coming from with that. They don’t want it to get uglier than it is. But unless you do something to stop it, it’s just going to keep happening.
«I think a lot of farmers would do it if given the opportunity. They will do it. People will get hurt.»
Relieving the frantic moments on Sunday, Reekers said he heard the quad bike beep twice.
«I knew exactly what was happening, so I leaped out of bed, put some underwear on and some gumboots.»
By the time Reekers got outside the two men had already left the property on the bike, but unbeknown to them the bike was about to run out of gas.
Reekers jumped in his car and caught the two thieves two-kilometres from the property.
«My intention was to plough them off the road in the car, but I didn’t need to, they had come to a stop … I was wild. I grabbed one of the guys and struck him several times.
Reekers said as he ran to a neighbouring property to get them to ring police, one of the thieves jumped in his car and tried to push the quad bike along with the car.
«They’re trying to push start the bike. You can’t push start an automatic bike. I told them it had no petrol. It showed their intelligence,» Reekers said.
«They pushed the bike so hard that it flipped sideways and the car was on top of it. They tried to make a getaway in the car, but the wheels were off the ground … it wasn’t going anywhere. It was quite hilarious to watch.»
Reekers said the two made their escape over a neighbour’s fence.
He said friends on nearby farms were struggling with the increase in thefts in the area.
«We don’t need this. What they’re doing [means] we can’t do our job. The calves are starving, they’re not getting fed twice a day. I can’t feed my palm kernel out. Production plummets for every farmer that loses a bike.
«We can’t afford to be replacing a bike every six months. We don’t have that type of money.»
And Reekers had a message to those who are stealing from struggling farmers.
«You work hard. You build a business. You make sacrifices. You live in a shipping container just to make ends meet. One day we may be well off, but we work hard for it and it’s not fair.»
While Reekers was not injured, police have warned-off farmers from taking matters into their own hands.
Waikato police district communications manager Andrew McAlley encouraged farmers to notify police who were trained to deal with conflict situations.
Anyone with information on burglary can call Hamilton Central Police Station on 07-858-6200 or contact Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111 anonymously.
Source: Stuff
