Gardaí are investigating a recent farm theft in Eyrecourt, outside Ballinasloe in Galway where over €10,000 worth of farm machinery and equipment were stolen from a farmyard in the middle of the night.

Dairy and beef farmer, David Tracey reported this incidence to Gardaí last Thursday morning (October 10) when he discovered that his cattle trailer, Honda diesel power washer, two chainsaws (Still 365 and Huskvarna 355 models) and various other tools were stolen.

“They came into a calf shed which was blocked off on one end by a teleporter and on the other side by a car in storage. They broke the windows on the car, let down the handbrake, pushed it out of the way and brought the trailer out of the shed.

“The cattle trailer was a brand new, it was an 11-month-old Aerlite 8×5 and it was only used about a dozen times. It was never left out and only a very few people actually knew we had it, the postman didn’t even know it was in the yard.

“Then they went down the yard, about 50 yards or so and broke into another small shed where they took the rest of the tools,” said Tracey, speaking about the theft.

CCTV in Tracey’s local pub showed the thieves passing at 1:43a.m in the early hours of Thursday.

Gardaí were able to continue to trace the vehicle via CCTV footage as it travelled through Banagher, Birr and Shinrone, before it eventually disappeared in Templemore.

The vehicle’s registration was identified by Gardai, however the car is not currently registered to any individual.

Ballinasloe Horse Fair

Tracey believes the culprits must have scoped out his farm in the lead up to the farm robbery.

“They must have been in the yard a couple of nights beforehand – the guards reckon that we’re sort of on the route between Templemore and Ballinasloe, and that they [the thieves] could have scouted the place when they were up at the Ballinasloe Horse Fair two weeks ago,” he said.

This is the third incidence of theft to have taken place on the Ballinasloe farm, with the previous two thefts occurring at much the same time of year.

“About six or seven years ago, we had about €600 to €800 worth of tools taken from the farm and then last year, two Friesian heifers disappeared. It was around this time of year too when the other two incidences occurred,” he added.

Tracey doesn’t hold much hope that his equipment will be recovered at this stage, but he hopes more people will be vigilant to the risk of farm thefts and will ask questions before buying second-hand equipment from vendors offering to sell at suspiciously low prices.

He also believes more must be done to curb the rate of farm thefts from occurring.

“When something like this happens, the amount of people that reach out with the same experience over the last few years is frightening. I could list off about 20 different people, all of them with the same story – stuff disappears and nothing ever comes of it.

“There’s just too many people that are willing and happy to buy stolen stuff at a cheap price without asking any questions,” he said.