Farm theft is a major issue. With some estimates noting from January 2025 to September 2025, growers in California’s Tulare County suffered more than $1 million in losses and damages from ag theft, of which the majority is copper and equipment theft.
“Every pump site, depending on its location, has upwards of a 40% chance of being hit every year by a thief,” says Nathan Rosenberg, CEO and co-founder of Farmblox. “Every time it happens, it’s between like, $8,000 and $100,000 just for fixing the equipment, not minding the cost to the crop for the lack of irrigation for weeks on end, sometimes months.”
Rosenberg, whose company provides a customizable farming automation system, became interested in wire theft after visiting with a large grower about a year ago to discuss monitoring tank levels, soil moisture, irrigation systems, etc. But he says the conversation quickly turned to theft as the grower had suffered a $100,000 copper wire theft the day before.
“They’re showing us what happened,” he says. “Some thieves cut the conduit and pulled out copper wire, and their pumps were damaged. Apparently, they have a team of about a dozen people on staff whose full-time job is to fix copper theft. Mind you, they’re a very large grower, so this is not the usual, but this kind of goes to show you how big a problem it is.”
So, Rosenberg and Farmblox started working with the grower on a pilot program, developing a suite of solutions to monitor theft, and it was during that time that Rosenberg and the Farmblox team connected with Bobby Rader, a former law enforcement official who worked in the Agricultural Crimes Unit in the Central Valley.
Rader, too, had developed a device to deter copper theft called Cop-R-Lock. And so, Rader and the Farmblox team collaborated on the final system, which officially debuted this week.
Rosenberg says while it would be easy to assume a copper theft would be an inside job it’s usually thieves from larger cities coming in specifically to these farms with large trucks or vans to load up. And with an estimated copper market value of around $3 to $5 per pound or about $10,000 per metric ton and the remote location of most farms, it makes agriculture an unfortunate prime suspect.
“In the middle of the night, they’ll pull out the copper wire from the conduit usually with the seat belts of the truck, and then just run away with it,” he says. “They’re able to get away with it because these sites are in the absolute middle of nowhere. No one’s around, and there’s no eyes on them.”
How it works
Rosenberg says while growers might immediately think about incorporating security cameras to deter theft, he says it’s not necessarily the best system. Most of the ag operations are in very remote areas with little to no cell service or internet to run the camera and wild animals move through these farmlands, which could accidentally trigger the camera.
“Security cameras are great for looking back to see what happened, but that doesn’t actually prevent something from happening,” he says. “It became clear to us that we were very uniquely suited to solve this problem because we’ve solved this connectivity problem for other use cases too.”
Rosenberg says there’s a wire wrapped around and inside the irrigation system’s conduit, which, when cut an alarm will go off. There’s also a motion distance sensor, and it will text the grower and also alert local law enforcement in the Central Valley.
“We’ve been able to actually catch and stop two different thefts that we know of so far, just in the last few weeks,” he says.
Rosenberg, too, says having the alarm was Rader’s idea.
“Because he knows human psychology really well, with being in law enforcement, putting out a light siren, just like would be on a police car to give them the sense of ‘someone is actually watching, so maybe you shouldn’t do this,‘” Rosenberg says.
Within the app, Rosenberg says growers have the option to disable the system for repairs, etc.
And he says Farmblox has started to have conversations with insurance providers who may offer a 10% or 20% discount on a premium for a grower who has installed the Cop-R-Lock system. He also says with the high possibility of theft, the ROI on installing the system is fairly quick.
“We get a lot of calls from growers the day after they had a series of copper thefts,” he says. “We’re their next call because they’ve heard through the grapevine we have a system.”
Grower’s reaction
Pistachio, walnut, almond, corn, wheat and dairy farmer Willem de Borer says in an interview by Farmblox that a well on his farm was hit four times, and even after putting cement over the pipe, the thieves still stole the wire again. He even tried building a steel vault, which the thieves eventually broke through.
“It’s us against them,” he says. “Our insurance companies are leaving the state. We’re self-insuring. I’ve had vehicles stolen, copper wire stolen, tractor stolen. We just keep spending more and more money to alleviate the problem, more lights, more fences, just on and on.”
But he says the pumps that have Cop-R-Lock on them have not been hit, but unfortunately, another pump on the farm that did not have the system was hit.
“Our farms are so open, and we’re vulnerable,” he says. “We have people riding bicycles through, and they’re casing us constantly.”
