Police step up efforts to beat rural thieves after a surge in farm trailer thefts across south Leicestershire

Leicestershire Police are producing stickers (pictured) for owners to display on the back of their equipment in an attempt to deter and defeat criminals.

Leicestershire Police are producing stickers for owners to display on the back of their equipment in an attempt to deter and defeat criminals

Police are stepping up efforts to beat rural thieves after a surge in farm trailer thefts across south Leicestershire.

Leicestershire Police are producing stickers for owners to display on the back of their equipment in an attempt to deter and defeat criminals.

Officers are being encouraged by the stickers to stop drivers spotted towing trailers during the hours of darkness from 10pm-5am in case they have been stolen.

Owners can fit the reflective stickers to the back of their vehicles with a heat gun.

The move comes after late-night gangs have been targeting farms and remote rural properties either side of the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border to steal trailers and horse-boxes.

PC Hutch Hutchings, of Northamptonshire Police Rural Crime Team, is now calling on people to fit alarms to their yards and homes to beef up security.

The experienced rural officer posed pictures on social media showing the lengths countryside criminals will go to pinch high-value vehicles and equipment such as trailers, horseboxes and caravans across the Harborough area.