New tactics weeding out farm crime

Santa Paula grower Bob Pinkerton was certain the young man he saw walking down a street was the one who had been drinking beer and smoking pot in his large avocado orchard in recent days. Worried that he was a thief, Pinkerton used his cellphone to snap a photo and e-mailed it to Sgt. Tim Hagel of Farm Watch, an agricultural version of the Neighborhood Watch crime prevention program. Within four hours, a sheriff's deputy had detained the man and arrested him on suspicion of vandalism and trespassing on Pinkerton's property. The man, a local vagrant, was on probation for earlier farm thefts. Pinkerton, a third-generation rancher, credits Farm Watch -- an e-mail newsletter and alert network -- with helping him nab the guy. "It's essential," the grower said. "If you don't have a mechanism for getting the word out, when you see something, you might just blow it off." Created last year, Farm Watch helps farmers and ranchers keep a lid on the problem of agricultural theft, said Hagel, the Ventura County sheriff's sergeant who set it up. Twice a month, Hagel compiles information about patterns of thefts, suspects and crime-prevention tips and e-mails the newsletter to about 350 Farm Watch members, who pass the tip sheet on so it eventually reaches more than 700 people in Ventura County...LATimes