Farmers say rural crime is dramatically on the rise, with many saying fuel is being stolen, farm machinery is being taken, and boy racers are vandalising property.
"It just keeps increasing - we are really worried about it," said Colin Hurst, a South Canterbury farmer and Federated Farmers crime spokesperson.
"It just creates that anxiety, you don't know what incidents you are going to come across."
A recent survey of about 1200 farmers found more than half had experienced at least one incident in the past two years.
Waikato was one particular crime hot spot, Hurst said.
1News visited several farmers in the region, many who were being terrorised by boy racers.
They would meet late at night in large numbers, destroying road signs and crashing into fencing. The daylight would reveal the remains of burnt out cars, stretches of road covered in rubber, and dug up asphalt.
"It's getting exponentially worse," said one local, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They are concerned about retaliation from criminals.
"We don't feel safe in our rural communities anymore."
Just two weeks ago a milk tanker was stopped by a group of people on the road in the Waikato, the window smashed, the tank vandalised, with milk spilling onto the road.
An 18-year-old man has been charged with Wilful Damage, Disorderly Behaviour likely to cause Violence and Possession of an Offensive Weapon, and police are not ruling out further arrests.
Waikato farmer, Jodi Watson, said her community has fund-raised for CCTV cameras to be installed at the side of the road. She said neighbouring districts were doing the same.
"People would steal things and then use these roads to get to places like Taupō - it's just about blocking off those areas," she said.
"We are far from town and you do have to step up and do things yourself."
Farmers across the country are also ramping up security measures.
"I've invested in some security cameras - we are due to get them any day - I'm going to have three security cameras, one looking at the fuel tank, one looking down my drive way and one towards the house," said Colin Hurst.
All farmers 1News spoke to said rural police resources were stretched. 1News approached the police for an interview about rural crime issues but was told no one was available.
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