Nearly 600 sheep stolen from Victorian farm after owner loses theft insurance

Police are concerned about the brazen nature of a sheep rustling operation after nearly 600 sheep were reported stolen from a western Victorian property in two separate incidents.

The sheep were stolen from a property on the Sunraysia Highway in Lexton where Steve Wheeler farms 10,000 head.

“We were home at the time, but obviously there’s a fair distance between the house and the back of the property,” he said.

“There’s about 2,700 acres [1,092 hectares] on this block and then we lease another 800 acres [323 hectares].

“My stock agent put a value of $150 dollars [per sheep], which was probably high but he averaged it.” 

Insurance affected

After months of sliding sheep prices, Mr Wheeler said the most recent price he had received for shorn merinos was $60 per head.

“It’s not great, it’s pretty annoying really. With prices the way they are it’s hard enough, let alone people coming here and stealing,” he said.

“Stop and think about other people for once — I do feel a bit like I’ve been targeted.”

Mr Wheeler said thousands of sheep had been stolen from the property over the 20 years he had run the farm, with thefts occurring almost every year.

“My insurance company has said ‘no more’, so we cannot insure for theft anymore, just from losing so many over the years,” he said.

“It doesn’t give me much faith in the system, but I can understand insurance companies have got to make money somewhere I suppose.

“We did look into cameras when we first lost our insurance and to put up a system that I believe was going to be good enough was going to be about $20,000.”

The Farm Crime Coordination Unit with Victoria Police is investigating the thefts, which included stud quality breeding rams.

“It’s significant, 585 12-month-old mixed-sex merino sheep. It’s certainly of concern,” unit leader Paul Hargreaves told Statewide Drive Victoria.

“One really concerning thing, apart from the number [initially stolen], is that they’ve come back and gotten into the merino rams that were sitting in a separate paddock.

“They’ve obviously spent a significant time [on the property] because they’ve sorted out the best of the mob and taken those — it’s a unique situation.”

‘Somebody must know something’

The first theft took place between July 23 and September 19, with the alleged thieves returning to steal 16 merino rams from the same farm between November 4 and 6.

“We don’t normally have rams stolen; we’d be looking at ewes that would be put into another mob,” Inspector Hargreaves said.

“You don’t steal rams unless you’re going to breed them — they want them for a purpose.

“This is why we’re reaching out to the public, someone has to have seen something and somebody must know something.”

Inspector Hargreaves encouraged members of the public to contact their local police station, or make an anonymous report to Crime Stoppers Victoria if they had been offered suspiciously cheap breeding rams or noticed unusual activity.

“These sheep take up a fair bit of room in a truck, so you’re talking probably a B-double or multiple loads of a 14 to15-tonne truck or many loads in a trailer,” he said.

“We don’t know if they’ve gone through a saleyard or to another farm, or across the border into New South Wales, but somebody will know something.

“Earlier in the year in the eastern parts of Victoria we saw a couple of lots [stolen], around 550 to 600 animals as well.”