Long story...

Posted by Launa on 4/10/2012, 11:02 pm, in reply to "Did the police check his house/friends/neighbors?"

The police were horrible but I did and I forced the issue but to them a puppy does not constitute a theft until you find the animal in their possession. Here's the email I sent out to multiple agencies and the local ranchers involved. I wonder why you can not attach photo's on message board like the other ones...weird! If anyone wants to actually see the guy let me know I'll post it on the other board. The man in the above pictures name is John Farmer and on 3/23/12 he was arrested for felony theft charges on a probation violation. He was on probation for multiple burglary charges, residential and commercial, and had a long list of priors dating back to his teen age years. The truck he was driving was a maroon dodge pickup probably late 90's early 2000 with a big custom black bumper on the front. My lock and chain to my cattle gate, which had direct access to Los Vaqueros Watershed was in the back of his truck and that is what violated his probation. My report number is 12-4914 was taken by Contra Costa Sheriff's dept., if you have any reason to suspect Farmer for the multiple thefts, vandalisms, burglaries around here please pass my report number on to the agency you reported to or anyone else who may have suffered a related loss. In the bed of his truck were multiple cut chains with locks, bolt cutters, hacksaws, and what looked to be the armature from a windmill. Some of you may know the story, around 5:30pm Friday 3/23/12 Tom Ditullio (One leg Tom ) spotted Farmer driving past Sandhill. By the time I received the text I was waiting at the bottom of my drive way. Farmer actually waved at me as he went by. I had questioned him on the disappearance of my puppy and took the above picture back on 3/14/12. In that picture the license plate on his truck did not match the truck he was driving. I pulled out behind him to follow him but was behind another car. By the time we made it to Vasco he ran the light at Vasco and turned right toward Livermore. Later I found out that he changed the plate back to the original one for that truck which is why I believe he didn't want me behind him. The tags on this plate were expired. I did not want to follow him as he knows who I am and where I live. I didn't want him to associate what was about to happen to me for my personal safety and to protect my ranch. Tom continued to follow him and Farmer pulled over and parked by the entrance to Vaquero Farms. Tom continued to drive by, turn around drive back multiple times. As soon as Farmer started to trespass I called the Sheriff's dept and Robert Nuzum. At this point multiple ranchers were called and converged on Farmer's location. He started to run and hide the instant he realized he wasn't alone. Hours later right before dark the Sheriff's finally arrived and originally took him for a probation violation but Farmer would have been released Monday. I called the arresting officer and was very frustrated as he did not want to hear about all the burglaries on Camino Diablo west of Vasco, cut gates, cut fences and basically told me to shut up there was nothing they could do and it was pointless for him to hear the back ground on what was going on around here. Wrong approach with me… I questioned that officer about all the cut chains, locks, what looked like part of a windmill, and all the "tools of the trade" bolt cutters, hack saw, etc. in the back of Farmer's truck. He told me he didn't see any of that and that nothing could be done and hung up on me. I thought maybe Farmer emptied his truck before he was arrested and all those items would be close to where he parked his truck. Tom and I jumped back in my truck to go search the field. To my surprise a Sheriff's car was still by the truck and for a second I thought I was going to put a face to the officer I was just speaking with. Fortunately for him it was his much nicer partner Deputy Sanchez. He listened to the back ground about what has been going on for the last 6 months and eventually escorted us over to the truck where Tom pointed out, in plain view, all the items in the back of his truck that directly relate to all the illegal activity on surrounding ranches and Los Vaqueros. To my surprise I saw the chain and my lock which was cut from my gate on 3/12/12. I didn't have my key so I had to rush back to my house and return before the tow truck. I made it back in time and while Deputy Sanchez watched, I opened my lock!!! Because Farmer was now in possession of stolen property, my lock, he was arrested for felony probation violation!!! I want to thank everyone for your help Friday night without all of us working together Farmer would have been back on the street quickly, or never caught. I'm also grateful the first officer wouldn't listen to me and hung up on me because if he hadn't frustrated me I would not have driven to where the truck was and wouldn't have identified my lock. While dealing with this it became quite clear that if we are going to stop/prevent this activity from happening we are all going to have to work together and keep the ranchers, home owners, agencies all talking to each other and informed. I am certain John Farmer wasn't working alone and because the area affected is multi jurisdictional/multi agency/multi victim it makes it that much harder. With all the budget cuts there are only 2 sheriff's working at a time in this area which goes all the way to Bethel Island. It could literally take hours for a response if you dialed 911. Let's have an open discussion on how to handle this and of course to keep an eye out for my puppy My hope is that while investigating Farmer officers will see a puppy and call me to identify her so we can have another theft on Farmer, feel free to call 24/7 if you see her. Barefoot'n'Healthy http://www.extendinc.com/barefoot/ Natural equine boarding with special interest in lameness recovery including Laminitis, Founder, Navicular http://www.thatsawrapofbrentwood.com