Published: August 05, 2009 10:33 am      

Hay heists bring stalk stings

Dale woman arrested in wee hours of the morning

The deputy was waiting, quietly, in the pitch dark early on July 28 as a red and gray Ford truck approached the location to make the pickup.

Once it was done, the lawman acted and placed the offender under arrest.

Yet it wasn’t a drug deal that prompted the surveillance on a remote area of Reavis Road in Caldwell County — instead, the deputy was guarding a field holding a commodity almost as pricey in these drought-dogged days — big round bales of hay.

The arrest of 59-year-old Anne Dunn of Dale came at 3:15 in the morning and was the first under a new strategy Caldwell authorities have enacted to reduce hay thefts.

Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Paul Cowan wouldn’t disclose other locations being watched, but he did say the program is ongoing.

Citing Caldwell Sheriff Daniel Law, Cowan said the cost of hay has “increased dramatically” due to drought conditions. Along with Hays and surrounding counties, Caldwell is in the area where drought is deemed “exceptional.”

“Livestock has been unable to feed on grass in the barren pastures,” Cowan said, which has resulted in bales being stolen from areas they are being stored.

The new crime prevention strategy stations deputies “near sites where hay is stored to stop, identify and arrest offenders as they attempt to leave the scene with the stolen hay,” Cowan said. “Until drought conditions change and hay is plentiful again, deputies will continue to monitor hay field traffic and work surveillance at locations where hay is being stored.”

Gene Hall, spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau, hadn’t heard of the Caldwell initiative but said it doesn’t surprise him. “Hay is getting to be a pretty valuable commodity.”

Costs are in flux but Hall said round bales of hay have gone for as much as $80 in the past.

Hall said prices are “getting to the point that farmers and ranchers can’t really afford to bring hay into areas where it isn’t being produced,” which is basically from Waco south to the Rio Grande Valley.

Hall said he uses the word “epic” to describe the current drought that is near to entering its second year. “I’ve been here 31 years and it surpasses anything I’ve seen.”

He continued, “There are some people that say it’s about as bad as the 1950s. The current drought hasn’t lasted as long but it’s certainly more severe in a lot of ways.”

The Texas Department of Agriculture has an online “Hay Hotline” at www.agr.state.tx.us.

Cowan said Dunn had loaded a single round bale of hay into her pickup. She was booked into the Caldwell County Jail under a bond of $2,500.