Faced with these GPS thefts, we feel helpless!
A few words are enough to awaken bad memories "Since your call, I must say that I am less at peace. It disturbed me..." Talking to Michel Raimbaud about thefts of agricultural GPS is like going back a few months. And returning to a painful time for Agri Ouest. The agricultural works company, in which the fifty-year-old is associated with four other people, has experienced several waves of burglaries on the Mésanger site, east of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) since 2021.
The perpetrators were only interested in the portable equipment that costs a small fortune. And Agri Ouest was not prepared for this looting. "The first time, it was so unexpected...", sighs the professional. The place, lost in the Ancenis countryside, was not fenced. "And they helped themselves. They disappeared, taking almost €60,000 worth of equipment." Cutting-edge technological tools allowing farmers to pilot their enormous tractors as finely and precisely as possible in the fields intended for cultivation.
“Twice in six months is something.”
In the south of Vendée, a cereal grower experienced a similar mishap in 2023. “Twice in six months is quite something. The equipment was always locked up, but it’s true that we didn’t always dismantle the antenna and console,” regrets this man who prefers to remain anonymous. He is amazed by the thieves’ know-how: “They got in the same way each time by cutting the cladding. They knew very well where the equipment was and when to come.”
In the farming world, this "raid" phenomenon ended up creating fear. Then exasperation and anger. "We are absolutely not equipped to deal with it!" Michel Raimbaud growls. When it happened the first time, we asked the John Deere brand if the receivers could be deactivated remotely, but it was not possible. So we tried to organize ourselves as best we could." The company equipped itself. "We fenced everything off, installed two gates and cameras."
In Fontenay-le-Comte, another farmer, annoyed at being robbed every year since 2021, ended up investing: "I installed cameras, motion detectors, sirens!" he explains. Same feeling of helplessness every time.
At Agri Ouest, they came back twice. "They cut the fence as they passed through the fields. The cameras had probably been deactivated. We didn't see anything." The Vendée farmer had the surveillance device connected to his phone: "So for the last theft, I saw them live taking my consoles away."
Victim of four night raids on his company based in Guer (Morbihan), Pierre-Henri Hamon feels, since then, "obliged to do rounds" himself. "We have no choice, we cannot relax our vigilance. It is our work tool that is at stake."
As this topic is becoming increasingly important, TICATAG has worked with agricultural dealers to integrate autonomous GPS trackers into the antennas of different manufacturers or into tractor consoles, and offer a fully integrated solution. Thus, the farmer will be able to be armed to intervene immediately with the police in the event of theft. Would you like to know more about this solution?
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