Merseyside farmer snares thief who raided his farm by tracking him down on eBay

Jan 31 2013 by Rob Pattinson, Liverpool Echo

A MERSEYSIDE FARMER turned detective after a break-in, by tracking down the thief who raided his farm on eBay.

Craig Parkinson discovered around £4,000 of machinery and stock had been stolen from one of his outbuildings in an overnight raid.

The sheep farmer initially feared there was little hope of recovering his items.

But, after reporting the theft to police, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.

One of the items stolen from his farmland on Johnsons Meanygate, Tarleton, near Southport, was a distinctive Ryobi pressure washer.

So the dad-of-two went online to search auction and shopping website eBay to see if the thief had put it up for sale.

And he was surprised to discover the pressure washer was being offered from an address in Southport. Mr Parkinson said: “I couldn’t believe the gall of him when I saw pictures of my stuff for sale.

“One of the bigger pieces was a pressure washer as well as stuff for dealing with the sheep. I decided to have a look on eBay myself, searched for the pressure washer and there it was. In the pictures, I could even see the rest of my stuff in boxes in the background. I said to my wife, Eve: ‘Come and look at this, it’s unbelievable!’.”