Sheep killed in Screveton and meat taken as Nottinghamshire Police warns of rise in rural crime

Police are urging the public to be their eyes and ears following an increase in rural crime.

Nottinghamshire Police are seeking information in relation to three recent incidents.

Overnight February 23-24, two sheep in Screveton were killed, butchered and their meat taken from the field in which they were being kept.

There was also an attempted theft of a trailer laden with steel from Langar on February 28 just after 8pm.

Offenders escaped over fields but the trailer and steel were recovered.

A GPS dome — used to guide tractors and farm machinery — was stolen in Stragglethorpe, near Bingham, in the early hours of February 27 at around 4.30am.

These domes are reported to be worth thousands of pounds.

Officers will continue to visit farms and hold meeting with rural communities, but have offered advice on a number security deterrents:

• Remove devices where possible when not in use.
• Mark your property with a postcode and record serial numbers.
• Ensure the software is up to date, including tracking software, and marked with security warning stickers.
• Where you can’t remove a device, consider a lock or an alarm.

Members of the public are also encouraged to use the What3Words mobile app to pinpoint an exact location with a unique three word tag — this can be used by officers responding to rural crime with no obvious point of reference.

Anyone with information is encouraged to report these incidents to police by calling 101 or 999 where a crime is in progress or in the case of an emergency.