Thieves target antique farm equipment

RCMP are warning people in rural areas to keep an eye on old tractors and other antique farm items after a Massey Harris tractor from the late 1940s or early 1950s disappeared from the Miniota area in southwest Manitoba.

Cpl. Ewen Booth says the tractor was parked in a vacant farmyard, and hadn't been started in years. He says this type of crime is happening more than it used to.

"It's been a growing trend only because antiques are suddenly becoming valuable," he says. "A lot of the people who are in the rural area still use some of the things that are considered antiques, so they take it for granted and really don't know the value of it.

"Somebody from a city or who's into the antique business, when they come across these items, they suddenly see the dollar signs."

Booth says the people responsible for these thefts could be anyone from antique dealers to someone who just wants to make a few bucks collecting scrap metal.

"We haven't had an abundance of them, but at the same time as this tractor, we also found out there was an antique cutter sled that was also stolen from an adjacent farmyard, so obviously somebody who was aware of the value of these antiques is out there in the rural area."

Booth recommends rural residents keep farm machinery close to the house so they can keep an eye on it.