Illegal street racers have emerged as a surprising new threat for farmers in a major new crime survey, and an unprecedented number are losing faith in police citing a lack of resources to act.
The Federated Farmers Rural Crime Survey canvassed over a thousand farmers, and for the first time it asked about illegal street racing.
A majority, or 61.9 percent of participants had or suspected they'd had an incident of crime linked to boy racers in the past two years.
Taupiri dairy farmer Jamie Haultain is one of those. He can't put stock in a corner paddock by his intersection, for fear of calves being spooked and injured on weekends by the screeching of tyres and cars catapulting through fences.
"The cars slide out and go through the fences, we've even had them drive 100 metres into the paddock to do skids."
He says groups of 100 cars have been known to congregate and "they will purposely rip out the electric fence connection so it's no longer electric when they are trying to get their vehicle out as quick as they can once it's crashed".
Federated Farmers spokesperson Richard McIntyre told Newshub farmers are fed up.
Illegal hunting or poaching emerged as the second-biggest issue for 47.1 percent of respondents.
Most lost deer, and the number of participants reporting pigs being illegally hunted has doubled since 2016.
"It's a really disconcerting thing for farmers and their families having people potentially wandering around with firearms on their property," McIntyre said.
"Often these poachers don't know where a house is, or whether a farmer is out - it's plain dangerous," he added.
Farmers in Gisborne-Wairoa, the West Coast and the Ruapehu districts have the highest incidents of poaching.
Thirty-three percent of farmers surveyed have had livestock stolen, however fuel and quad bikes continue to be the most stolen items.
But farmers aren't reporting incidents to police, mainly because they aren't confident they'll respond.
"It sucks we are not making good money at the best of times, we ring the police and sometimes you can't even get hold of 111," Jamie Haultain told Newshub.
In 2021, about a third of farmers, or 31.2 percent, opted not to report crime to police.
That figure's now up to 47.7 percent this year.
"Farmers, like people in urban areas, are absolutely sick of the crime we are seeing," said McIntyre.
"We need better resourcing for police to solve these crimes and also to deter them from happening in the first place."
The survey found the regions with the highest rate of overall crime or suspected crime are Tasman-Marlborough, and the West Coast.
And while single incidents of crime have dropped, the number of farmers reporting five or more incidents has doubled since 2021.
In Hawke's Bay, 50 percent of all farmers say they've been targeted multiple times.
"These farms are very stretched at the moment and their security is not as strict as pre-cyclone so criminals are taking advantage of that unfortunately."
Inspector Dave Martin, police's rural policing manager, told Newshub rural areas face unique circumstances - neighbouring homes can be some distance away and it may take some time to notice equipment or stock has been stolen.
"The biggest deterrent to crime is prevention, and two-thirds of rural burglaries and thefts occur at properties with no or little security in place," Insp Martin said.
"The message remains the same: Please tell us when you've been targeted. Your time isn't wasted - it helps to provide us with a valuable picture of where crime is occurring, what is being targeted, and gives us the opportunity to act."
A rural crime prevention trial underway in north Canterbury is assisting farmers with prevention and crime reporting.
The trial began in May 2022 and, in the first 12 months, found that 20 percent of rural burglaries are happening when someone is at home and in 58 percent of cases the person on the property is unaware.
And in 61 percent of cases, entry was gained through insecure or open doors.
