Where the Grass Grows Greenest …
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6804101014 |
| Published date | 01 October 1968 |
| Author | W. Muncie |
| Date | 01 October 1968 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DET.
CHIEF
SUPT.
W.
MUNCIE
Lanarkshire Constabulary
WHERE
THE
GRASS GROWS
GREENEST
••.
During food rationing, brought about by World War II, perhaps
country detectives were more conscious of its side effectsthan were
their city counterparts.
Somehow, in those days, a little bit extra was always available to
some folk, and those who could give the little extra had acquired
it mostly to make a profit. There were others, though, who acquired
it because they thought it gave them importance to be able to supply
a"little bit extra". Precious few ever gave a thought as to how the
little bit extra came to be available, with such stringent controls as
existed.
On the eastern side of Lanarkshire only some 20 miles from
Glasgow are great areas of rough grazing, and it was that area which
was the locus of this case, about four square miles in extent. A
farmer who resided in another area of Lanarkshire had obtained the
lease of this grazing and had contracted to winter several hundred
sheep belonging to the Forestry Commission. He hired a shepherd
for the purpose. At the beginning of April, when the sheep were
withdrawn to be returned to Argyllshire, it was found that, after
taking into consideration 12 natural deaths, 79 sheep were missing,
The farmer, a justice of the peace, reported the matter to the police
and I called on him to set the details.
The shepherd, his contract completed, had now left. The farmer
said he had periodically visited the shepherd and checked the sheep,
his final visit to count them having been three days prior to the
sheep having been withdrawn. He had made a count with the
shepherd and, to use his own expression, "They were as near hand
correct as damn it". This meant that there ought to be signs of a
truck at some part of the ground or marks if the sheep had been
been driven off. Several narrow roads cut the area into sections and
it took the remainder of that day and all the next to examine all the
perimeters. I returned to the farmer and told him the result and at
the same time again elicited from him that at their loading points
there had been no fresh marks. He had to agree that this did not add
up to such an accurate count as he had said and he admitted that
the count has "been a bit rough".
The shepherd had not returned to the address he had given when
hired. This was the address of his old parents in another county and
it was two weeks before I located him. Meantime I had found him
recorded in the Scottish Criminal Record Office as a fraudster.
During that fortnight I had
not
been idle. The shepherd had
shared a bothy on a farm situated at the edge of the grazing and on
486 October 1968
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