But if you’re a farmer — a poultry farmer, in particular — you figure you don’t have much to worry about in the way of thieves.

That’s what Jimmy and Sharleta Davidson, a longtime farming family in Siloam Springs, always thought. That way of thinking changed in a hurry, though, the morning of Dec. 18.

Sharleta Davidson was the first one out to the family’s chicken houses that morning. She approached the first house at 7 a. m., then noticed the open door. She figured her husband, Jimmy, had forgotten to lock the door the night before. When she went to the other end of the chicken house, however, she noticed the other door was open. She knew something was wrong. She looked down to the floor and was horrified by what she saw.

“ I looked down and saw a pile of wires at my feet, ” Sharleta Davidson said. “ Then, I remembered hearing a couple poultry houses had been broken into recently and the copper wiring had been stolen. I still couldn’t see anything inside our chicken houses because it was so dark out. But I knew exactly what had happened.

“ I flipped the switch and nothing happened. I broke down in tears. I was so scared. I was so upset. I didn’t know what to do. ”

By the time the sun had risen that morning, Jimmy Davidson and his daughter and son-in-law had joined Sharleta at the poultry houses. Now they could see the damage. All the wiring in two of the family’s four houses had been stolen. Within a couple of hours, the Davidsons learned the copper wiring inside chicken houses is not covered under standard insurance. And, given the fact that many farmers are struggling to turn a profit as it is, the Davidsons were beside themselves. They felt helpless, violated.

The Davidsons, who raise chickens for Peterson Farms, aren’t alone when it comes to poultry-house thefts in the area. There have been 112 reports of copper wiring stolen from poultry houses in northwest Arkansas in the past year alone. Of those, 30 have been in Benton County.

“ You hear about construction-site thefts, but with more and more contractors taking steps to curtail some of that and secure their equipment, it’s driving these thieves to other locations, ” said Doug Gay, public information deputy for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. “ With poultry houses, you’re typically talking about rural locations where not many people are around at night. They all have a lot of copper wiring, and the price of copper has gone up lately. It’s become a very big problem. ”

According to Gay, it’s believed thieves are selling the copper wiring to scrap yards, where they can collect $ 3 to $ 5 per pound. Many times, no questions are asked by scrap-yard managers, even when someone pulls up with a pickup truck filled with copper wiring. In Benton County, no one has been arrested in connection with the poultryhouse thefts. Gay said it’s very difficult to get a handle on it.

“ Copper wiring doesn’t have registration marking, so it’s not like we can track where it’s coming from, ” he said. “ It’s very easy for someone to drive a short distance and cross into another state to sell this stuff to scrappers. That further complicates matters. To make an arrest, you almost need to catch someone red-handed. ”

Most poultry farmers are finding that insurance doesn’t cover their wiring. It costs between $ 3, 000 and $ 5, 000 to rewire the average chicken house.

“ These people seem to know exactly what they’re doing, ” said Mark Weathers, Tyson Foods production manager. “ These people know the couple days when there aren’t going to be chickens in the houses. They know how the houses are wired. It doesn’t seem to be a spur-of-the-moment crime. ”

The Davidsons agree.

“ Someone had to be watching us to see what our schedules were, ” Sharleta Davidson explained. “ That’s scary. I couldn’t sleep for nights after that. We’ve been farming for years, and I’d never once been frightened on my own property before. Now there’s a point of every day I feel scared or I’m wondering who’s watching. ”

The Davidsons have installed security lighting on their poultry houses and sensors on their driveway in an attempt to deter thieves. Meanwhile, copper-wiring thefts continue to take place across Benton and surrounding counties.

“ This is costing Tyson, other companies and their growers a lot of money, ” Weathers said. “ When you have to change a schedule, feed deliveries and everything else, there’s a lot of lost time and money. It affects everything, all the way down the line. ”

To produce one batch of chickens for Peterson Farms, the Davidsons spend approximately $ 9, 000 just to heat their poultry houses. That, combined with other regular expenses, is enough to hold their profits just above the break-even line. Throw an unexpected expense into the mix, like $ 3, 000 to rewire a chicken house, and a farmer is forced to start thinking about whether the business is worth continuing.

“ If these people spent one day doing what we do and saw the hard work that goes into this, you’d never commit a crime like this, ” Sharleta Davidson said. “ A farmer just can’t take a hit like that and not be crippled. ”