‘Meatheads’ cut bizarre tracks through Lake Grace farmer’s crop just days from harvest

A Great Southern farmer has woken to the infuriating discovery someone has “cut the hell” out of his oats overnight, with pictures showing a series of strange pathways clearly made by a car throughout his crop. Leon Clarke posted the shocking images to his Twitter account this morning, saying “to say I am infuriated is an understatement”, with the yellow crop just days away from being harvested for grain. He estimated about 20ha of the 150ha paddock on Gordon Road had been damaged. “I was taking our bins to the end of the driveway and noticed someone had cut through the paddock on the other side of Gordon road,” he said. “I am pretty angry, this is as bad as someone going and cutting up someone’s front lawn. “There is a lot of work that goes into a crop. “We haven’t had fantastic years for the last few and you hope this would be your turn to make a profit, and someone has just driven all over it and collected the best of it in their radiator.” Mr Clarke said he did not know who could be responsible for the incident, and said it would be “very disheartening” if it was a local responsible. “It is just never nice to have something like this happen, it is very unpleasant,” he said. Mr Clarke’s mother Debby said the family had reported the incident to the Lake Grace police and had been given a case number. “We think it happened either overnight or this morning, we took a few photographs and we are going to get some aerial shot so we don't have to drive through to see how much damage there is,” she said. “We were going to harvest it this week, we were about to start yesterday, but the moisture is a little bit high.” Mrs Clarke said she was unsure whether intent was malicious or if the driver of the car was impaired by drugs or alcohol. Newdegate farmer Ian Lloyd commented on the post, questioning whether the damage was new, saying someone had “cut up” through his wheat crop two weeks ago. But Mr Clarke said he believed it happened either last night or early this morning. Nyabing farmer Bradley Harris empathised with Mr Clarke, describing the alleged culprits as “meatheads” and saying he hoped they were found. Lake Grace sergeant Joshua Egan-Reid said he had spoken to the Clarke family this morning, with staff at the station labelling the incident “very unusual”. “I’ve spoken to my colleagues and they have all said this is not something they have seen before,” he said. “It is very unusual, it is noticeable at this time of year because the crops are looking so good. “Our lines of inquiry are limited, with no witnesses and the remote location, but we hope there will be some evidence on a vehicle if we see it driving around town. “We would encourage farmers to come forward if this happens to their crops.” Oats were worth about $295 a tonne out of Kwinana this week.