Two Legged Corn Thieves

[Quail_Antwerp]

A local farmer leases ground diagonally from us and plants corn there every year.

Tonight, we witnessed someone pull their truck over and start filling up the back of it...of course they waited until it was near dark.

So I called the sheriff to report the thieving. They told me that they can't act upon it unless the farmer who owns the corn calls it in. So I tried calling the local farmer. No answer. I drove the 2 miles to his house, and he's not home.

I do know who the person was who was picking the corn.

So do you think I should let the local farmer know when he gets home?

Last year he said that that he had to go 8 rows into his field before he found any corn on his stalks.

 

[freemotion]

I would've taken a picture, include the truck with the license plate. Then call out to the people, and snap another one when they turn to look at you, so you have a clear shot of the faces. Sheesh.

I took pictures of kids messing around outside my office once, and told them the police would get the pictures if any vandalism took place there. They complained that someone else might do damage. I told them they'd better make sure that doesn't happen.

These same kids had been skateboarding and making noise outside my door while I was with clients. When I asked them nicely to move on, they gave me lip. I told them I'd call the police, and they continued to be rude. So I called the police, and the kids made extra noise right up until the cops got there.

When they came back, I was armed and dangerous....with my camera. Never had trouble again!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

free, we know who the guy was picking the corn. Ernie was adamant that I not confront the guy, because he's crazy. He's a huge weirdo.

Some examples of his behavior.

Back in 2001, we had just moved back from TN and were working on clearing the property here to move our trailer on. We had just planted some nice trees (tulip poplars and pin oaks) in a newly cleared area.

Later in the day we hear someone brush hogging. I told Ernie, sounds like it's down the road (we lived up by FIL at the time). We came down to find that our entire field had been brush hogged, and our trees we had just planted were, too.

Ernie and his dad followed the trail of grass and mud clumps (it was an extremely muddy year!) to the guys house (lives diagonally from us to the right). Ernie knocks on the door and says, I want to talk to the owner of that machine right there and he points to the brush hog. The neighbor says, "Oh that doesn't run!" Ernie replied, I just followed your mud clumps here from my place.

So the guy spouts back, "Well, Ernie Turner gave me persmission to brush hog there!"
Ernie yells at the guy, "I am Ernie Turner!" He then told him if he caught him trespassing up here again, he'd shoot a hole in the block and then the machine really WOULDN'T run! (he threatened the MACHINE not the man!)

Last year this same guy stopped us at the bottom of our driveway and gave us a detailed description of how Ernie became owner of the property, plus details about the previous owner and the property next to us and what's buried on it. He had information going back 20 years, and pulled it all off the top of his head! He's only lived here since 2000! Yet, he has made a point of studying and learning everything about all the properties and owners of the properties in our area.

Scary stuff IMO!

 

[big brown horse]

What a creep!!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, sheesh, and yikes! When you said you knew him, that is not what came to my mind....you have some scary neighbors! Don't we all.....but sheesh! And yikes!!!

 

[xpc]

So do you think I should let the local farmer know when he gets home?

The answer to that would probably depend on how well you know the farmer and if he will tell the crazy dude you told him about it. Even though many people will say they won't mention your name they always seem to let it slip when put on the spot. I would still tell him regardless even if you don't want to name the culprit. Tell him you could not make out the vehicle and also called the police, that should make him feel a little better.

Tell the farmer that since he always loses the corn near the road he should just plant field corn there for his hogs, don't know about cross pollination though.
Also start keeping a detailed log book of what this crazy guy does, noting dates, times, actions and such. Makes a big difference having it to a judge if you ever have to go to court.

 

[SKR8PN]

We planted two acres of sweetcorn this year at my buddy's farm. It was ground that had been fallow for well over 50 years, so we had to do a LOT of work to get it planted. So far, we haven't had any trouble with the TWO legged corn thieves, mainly because the field we planted is smack dab in the middle of 50 acres, is located on top of a very VERY tall hill, and is surrounded by woods on all 4 sides.
Darn near impossible for US to get to, let alone anyone else!

We won't talk about the FOUR legged corn thieves...





And yes, I would let the farmer know when was doing the thieving, lest he think YOU guys might be doing it.

I hate thieves.

 

[Beekissed]

Your farmer needs to put up an electric fence, it seems.....high voltage!

 

[FarmerChick]

You did what you could.

I would tell the farmer that someone picked his corn---IF---I happen to run into him somewhere. I would not go out of my way.


a field of corn, nope, there is tons of corn in a big field of corn. so what if people pick a bit?

I say this cause I grow about 30-40 acres of corn and Barb grows about 250 acres of corn. Yea sometimes we see people picking some.

BUT the joke is on them cause OUR corn is not good people corn. It is specifically for silage and animal feed.

My good corn is not accessible for picking from the road..LOL


for me, don't bother worrying about some corn. as wrong as it is, and it is, it isn't worth it Quail. if the "wacko" guy finds out about you being involved, those few ears of corn might snowball into a nightmare. not worth it at all

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks everyone!

I won't say anything to the farmer unless we see him somewhere. Plus, We don't know that he didn't give the guy permission to pick corn, but I doubt it since what he's picking is field corn, not sweet corn.