INVESTIGATION - Agricultural GPS devices stolen from tractors in Franc – ticatag

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INVESTIGATION - Agricultural GPS devices stolen from tractors in France, located in Lithuania and Romania

    • The number of GPS for tractors stolen in France increased by 25% in 2023 compared to 2022.
    • Some end up in Lithuania or Romania, where they are sold at half price.
    • The same farm can be targeted multiple times.

    500 GPS devices were stolen from tractors in France in 2023, which is a hundred more than the previous year. Sold for around 17,000 euros per piece of equipment, they are essential for farmers to sow or spread fertilizer correctly. Easy to unhook when left on the roof of tractors, they are the targets of repeated thefts.

    Michel Raimbaud, a farmer in Mésanger (in Loire-Atlantique) met by TF1 in the report at the top of the article, had three GPS devices stolen in one year, a loss of more than 40,000 euros. "We always have a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. It makes us wonder a lot about continuing our activity in these conditions," he worries.

    Resold at low prices in Eastern Europe

    He had placed a tracker on the last GPS that was stolen from him. The device was stuck in the Lithuanian countryside, 2,300 km from his farm. The investigation is ongoing, which gives hope that the police will be able to recover the stolen object. Lithuania, but also other Eastern countries, including Romania, are generally the places where agricultural GPS devices are resold at almost half price. In 2021, 80 were found in Romania and seven men were arrested.

    It is the Central Office for the Fight against Traveling Crime that is investigating these theft and resale networks. "We also have French officers who belong to this office who are posted in certain Eastern European countries precisely to have visibility on the flow channels," explains the spokesperson for the national gendarmerie, Colonel Marie-Laure Pezant.

    All farmers can do while waiting for these networks to be dismantled is to unhook their GPS after each use so as not to leave it unattended on the roof of the tractor. In Aube, the police are touring the farms for prevention purposes. Thieves generally target several farms in the same street at the same time, and are equipped to cut through the fences. "We feel helpless..." sighs a farmer who has installed video surveillance cameras.

    Ticatag offers you solutions to monitor your agricultural GPS live, contact us for more information.

    Source: https://www.tf1info.fr/justice-faits-divers/enquete-voles-sur-des-tracteurs-en-france-des-gps-agricoles-localises-en-lituanie-et-en-roumanie-2293407.html

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