Two all-terrain vehicles worth £50,000 have been successfully recovered by the police and volunteers after a farm in Northumbria was raided by thieves.
An investigation was launched by the police and Farmwatch volunteers on 19 October after thieves stole the ATVs from a farm near Morpeth.
After reports that a silver Audi had been in convoy with the stolen buggies, police scoured the local area and soon located a vehicle matching its description at a service station near Ashington.
The driver, a 23-year-old man, was subsequently placed in handcuffs and arrested on suspicion of burglary.
But officers and volunteers weren’t done there, following various lines of intelligence to locate one of the stolen ATVs which had been hidden in bushes in the Ulgham Grange area within a matter of hours.
Twelve hours later, as part of their investigation, officers found the second stolen ATV which had been abandoned in bushes near Linton.
Both vehicles have since been seized and will be returned to the farmer.
Inspector John Swan, of Northumbria Police’s Rural Policing Team, said: “Under the banner of Operation Hawkeye, we are committed to tackling all rural crime in Northumbria.
“I would like to commend our Rural Policing Team who acted quickly to track the buggies, as well as our amazing Farmwatch volunteers who consistently go above and beyond to help protect our rural communities."
The Farmwatch scheme is a network of over 1,300 community members designed to help alert residents across Northumberland to any criminal or suspicious activity.
Northumbria Police is one of the only forces in the country to have rural crime volunteers, something which Inspector Warn said was 'priceless'.
He added: "We are making great strides in our ongoing crackdown on rural criminals and will continue to use every tactic possible to bring justice against them.”
The 23-year-old man arrested has since been released on police bail with enquiries ongoing.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to contact police via the ‘Tell Us Something’ page of their website or by calling 101 quoting crime number 124275Q/22.
