It’s a lazy, hazy Saturday afternoon. A nice, warm day. Riding your lawn tractor, you realize your tea glass is empty. Inside, refilling your glass, you notice the Braves are playing on TV. The grass can wait. You’ll cut it later. But later, you find your riding lawn mower is gone.

“Help us help you protect by not making yourself vulnerable to thieves,” Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office Chief Barbara Walters. “Keep your lawn equipment out of plain view, locked up or chained on, whatever means you have of securing it.”

Along with the grass growing and flowers blooming as the temperatures climb, the number of thefts of lawn and garden equipment will climb as well.

“These are crimes of opportunity,” says Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Lt. Dennis Romanstine, a 28-year law enforcement veteran. “The majority of lawn equipment ’walks off’ because people come by and see it beside the house, and it’s saying, ’Take me! Take me!’”

And the equipment does get taken. Local police estimate that in the greater Orangeburg area alone, between $30,000 and $40,000 worth of lawn equipment is stolen each spring.

Police say the theft of yard equipment typically goes to support a habit or to generate funds for the drug trade.

“Some of it’s stolen to use,” Romanstine said. “But for the most part, it’s sold to a drug dealer, sold to a drug dealer for drugs.”

Just Wednesday, a Kipps Lane woman had to call deputies about a break-in at her property, her lawn equipment taken. Her storage sheds where she kept her yard equipment had been burglarized.

The woman said that in addition to a Poulan grass trimmer, a child’s electric vehicle, a table saw, a planer and roofing materials were missing. The tab? About $5,745.

“What is a lock?” Romanstine asks rhetorically. “A lock is just to keep an honest person honest. A thief will break through it.”

However, there are means to keep your property from disappearing. Locks are a start, but the item to be protected has to be secured with the lock in order to be effective.

“It’s so easy to jump off the mower, run inside and get sidetracked,” Walters said. “You come out the next day and it’s gone.”

Installing an outdoor light of some nature over or near your storage shed can deter would-be thieves from striking at night.

“I always felt like the motion lights were a good deterrent,” Romanstine said. “You can’t tell if someone turned it of or you set it off, so you’re thinking, ’Oh, Lord! I don’t want to go in there!’”

Detectives also say etching or engraving your equipment in a hidden place can help with identification later if it’s stolen.

Police do advise, however, that you not etch your Social Security number into the equipment, as that could cause other problems, such as identity theft.

Another means stop the theft of grass trimmers and lawn mowers is to toss some Round-Up, figuratively speaking, of course, on the used mower market itself.

“If someone comes around asking you about buying a lawn and garden tractor that’s a real deal and cheap, the old adage will be true – it is too good to be true,” Walters said.

The best bet in that scenario, Walters said, will be take down as much information possible about the person or persons selling the equipment and call police.

“Out of sight, out of mind” is the rule of thumb when it comes to your outdoors equipment. Keep it out of sight when not in use, and lock it up when you’re done.

“I think some people just get a little careless,” Romanstine said. They think nobody’s going to come onto the property. But that’s where they’re wrong.“

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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