Thieves smashed their way into a remote field in the North Pennines this week to steal a new hired dumper truck worth £20,000.
The one-ton vehicle was nabbed after thieves, possibly using a bull-bar, smashed open locked farm gates to enter a field near Nenthead.
The victim’s £4,500 digger was also damaged as thieves tried to hotwire it, but they cut the hydraulics, rendering it immoveable.
Also stolen was a quantity of diesel, and the victim believes the truck must have been spirited away from the area in a covered vehicle.
The businessman, who asked not to be identified, said it is the sixth crime against him during his 12 years on the moor.
He told the Herald that he was annoyed police had “closed the case” within hours of him reporting it, when he said there was no CCTV.
The incident occurred in the same week as a high-profile launch of a new rural crime team for Cumbria, unveiled during National Rural Crime Week.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Cumbria police said its rural crime team had been alerted to the thefts and would be visiting.
But the businessman said forensically it was too late and that from previous experience, this would be a PCSO offering crime safety tips that he had already had before.
He said: “I’m fuming. The police have not even come out to have a look at it and I can’t believe they won’t even come out – it’s an absolute joke.”
The businessman added that previous attempts to provide solid evidence after crimes had also not resulted in prosecutions or convictions.
He also said he had his hands full dealing with the aftermath of the crimes to turn detective, and had rejected an offer of Victim Support on the basis they might not like what he had to say about policing.
The theft, and this week’s bad weather, means he has had to lay off workers who were doing a job on the field, he said.
He also now has to find money for the repairs and faces an insurance headache over the stolen 2023 Mecallic TA1 high tip dumper.
The businessman strongly questioned the police’s priorities of crime in the Alston area, saying that Eden Police had recently posted on Facebook about two motorists receiving penalties on the A686 for overtaking cyclists, having been caught by an officer on an electric bicycle.
Last week, police reported that a injured owl had been found by a PCSO on patrol on Hartside Pass earlier this month and passed into rescue care.
The vehicle thefts occurred sometime after 3.20am on Monday morning as a farmer had passed by at that time when everything was intact, he said.
Councillor Mary Robinson, an independent councillor for Alston and East Fellside on Westmorland and Furness Council, said there had been other reported rural crimes of late.
She told the Herald: “I am concerned about what is looking like a spike in crime happening around the fellside area. I would urge our rural police to give us a fair crack of the whip, as I don’t think we get one at the moment.”
Anyone with information can report it at www.cumbria.police.uk/reportit, quoting incident number 61 of 18 September 2023 or call 101.
Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
