Farmers turn to tech to thwart thieves

MACGREGOR — A number of farmers are bidding farewell to the days of unlocked homes and car keys stored in the car near MacGregor because of repeated theft targeting their rural properties.

A transformation has taken place in the rural community in the last 10 years, with technology such as live-feed cameras and alarms, lane monitors and GPS tags installed as a response to continuous thievery, several area farmers told the Sun in June. The security measures are a break from years past, and farmers are trying today to balance their ideals of country living with their increasing need for self-protection.

Heather Stone, a resident in the area, described the changing mood in an interview at her home.

“I think people are just more wary than they were before. There’s a wariness,” she said. “It’s just one of those things, where now you are suspicious. You just have this niggling doubt.”

Stone had her electronics and jewelery stolen 12 years ago when thieves entered her unlocked home northeast of MacGregor. More recently, thieves were captured on camera at a neighbour’s home in an overnight spree last year.

MacGregor hit the news in April 2025 when the Klippenstein family farm published a video on social media. Masked and hooded figures were seen with guns jumping out of a truck and running towards nearby buildings. One of the thieves leaned over the hood of the truck and pointed a firearm towards a farmhouse on the property. The video was timestamped at 3:38 a.m. on Apr. 6. It was just a few kilometres from Stone’s home.

“We used to leave our door unlocked more, now we definitely lock it when we leave, and at night,” Stone said. “It’s more at night, when lights come into your yard. You’re like, ‘OK what’s going on?’”

She said that anxiety among her friends and family has led to several false alarms. Simple things, like cars roving the neighbourhood playing geocache, a public game where participants try to find hidden outdoor items, created speculation and concern. Such worry is out of character for the community, she said.

Not all efforts have been in vain. The viral video of armed thieves that was captured last year exists because farmers had installed cameras as a response to crime, Shawn Klippenstein, of the Klipperstein family farm, told the Sun this month. His family installed the camera after a truck had been stolen from their property the previous year.

The viral video “really made a huge impact” in garnering attention to the crimes in the neighbourhood, he said (politicians reposted the online video, news outlets picked up the story, and within a week three individuals in Sandy Bay First Nation were arrested as suspects, with a warrant out for another suspect).

The cameras also tipped off Klippenstein’s son — through a video live feed — to stay clear of the situation as it unfolded.

“When that thing happened with the guns here, my son woke up and saw it on the phone,” Klippenstein said. “Otherwise he might have run out here.”

He added that his technology helps with notifying neighbours and aiding police investigations.

The transition at the Klippenstein farm has taken place in the past three years, starting from no cameras, and keys stored in vehicles, and evolving to a property with several cameras, GPS tags in equipment, keys stored in a secure location, and lane monitors that notify owners when someone enters.

The family is also considering another guard dog, or gating the driveway.

“You feel like it’s only a matter of time before it happens again,” Klippenstein said. “If something happens again we’d have to try and block the driveways off. I don’t know what you’d have to do.”

Security cameras have cost roughly $4,500.

A nearby commercial farm that declined to speak publicly told the Sun they have also taken measures due to repeated thefts in the area: installing better overnight lighting, and adding cameras in the past two years. They have not been hit by crime, but are aware of the risk through what has happened to neighbours in the community.

Devin Toews, a family farmer in the area, told the Sun in June that his farm has been hit for a period of 10 years. He described that the farm has been transitioning slowly for that time, upgrading security, but trying to avoid “putting ourselves in jail” by layering security measures on top of security measures.

“We’ve gone from open buildings and vehicles to shut locks and putting ourselves in the jail of prevention,” he said from his property near MacGregor, under the watch of several security cameras.

The farm has made essentially all the same adjustments to that of the Klippenstein farm, he said. The problem is that some adjustments can hurt. For example, hiding keys introduces inefficiencies and headaches that can be more harmful than helpful.

“We have multiple people doing jobs around here who need access to equipment, and you don’t want them unable to do their jobs,” Toews said. “We have too much stuff that we need access to, to lock up.”

He said that because of the April spree last year, the family installed 30 per cent more cameras, upgraded to cameras that can track movement and differentiate between vehicles, animals and trucks, introduced alarms to the property, and added GPS tags to equipment.

“We’re always kind of being reactive, because we know what they did last time, so we can react to that,” Toews said. He added that the family now “knows the drill” to preserve the crime scene for police and support investigations with camera footage.

The farm has previously had to replace camera databases that were stolen during burglaries, he said. They also relocated the database to a more secure location so that it would not happen again. Their security camera investment cost around $10,000.

Three years ago, after thieves stole a truck, attached a chain to it and ripped the family’s gun safe out of the building, guns were stolen from the safe and the truck was later located by police on the Sandy Bay First Nation. His property has been hit seven times, Toews said, prompting more measures through the years.

Toews believes that the same group of people have been involved in several of the burglaries due to the fact the farm has been hit seven times in about 10 years, and stolen items have been located in similar locations. He added the suspects were quick last time, and took only four minutes to steal an ATV last year.

Toews hopes the recent arrests and subsequent court case that is still proceeding will put an end to the burglaries — but still believes the farm needs to equip itself.

When asked about the most recent report of farmers being targeted — a June report that farmers in Portage la Prairie discovered their irrigation systems had been stripped of kilometre’s worth of copper — Toews said it did not motivate the family to change anything. At some point, the worry is just not worth it, he said.

“I don’t want to stress about something you don’t know. I still got to live and got work to do,” he said. “We’ll kind of take it as it comes.”

RCMP couldn’t provide information about the history of property crime statistics in rural municipalities before deadline.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com