A new anti-theft initiative is being piloted in Lincolnshire to help prevent horseboxes and trailers being stolen.
Lincolnshire Police intends to supply “stop me” stickers for horseboxes, trailers and farm equipment to encourage the police to pull over the vehicles should they be seen on the roads at night.
The stickers are placed on a vehicle and state “POLICE, 11pm-5am, STOP ME”.
“If the vehicle is being driven between those hours we will stop and check the driver details,” said Gill Finn from Lincolnshire Police.
“We’ve sent out a proposal to all HorseWatch members and so far we’ve had a 100% positive response.”
A pilot is being launched with the first 500 stickers applied for free, with the cost being £4 for two after that.
The scheme comes after a spate of thefts in the area, one as recently as last week.
“The stickers are designed to be tamper-proof, meaning that once they are on the vehicle it is virtually impossible to remove them unless scraped off, which would take some effort. Not something a potential thief would want to do at the point of theft. We aim to roll out the scheme in the next couple of months.”
“This is a great new initiative and I wonder why no one has thought of it before,” said one H&H reader from Stamford.
“Most riders rarely take their horseboxes out in those hours, so with the stickers costing so little they are definitely worth having. They obviously won’t prevent all thefts, but even if they result in one positive outcome then they are worth it.”
This news story was first published in H&H magazine (16 October 2014)
