DRUG MAKERS STEAL KEY CHEMICAL FROM FARMERS

GARLAND CITY, Ark.-Sitting in a cottonfield with his truck lights dimmed,
Rodney Heigle watched as someone approached his anhydrous ammonia tanks.
Moments later the person was gone.

"It only takes about a minute to get a few gallons," Heigle said.

He immediately called the Miller County Sheriff's Department to report the
theft.

It was not the first time anhydrous ammonia, a chemical used on farms as a
fertilizer, has been taken from his property.

"I'd bet you it's been 100 times at least," he said.

Heigle and his brother grow cotton and corn on farmland just off state
Highway 134 about 10 miles south of Garland City, Ark.

Several times they have witnessed the theft of their anhydrous ammonia. The
farmers keep their distance and call the authorities.

"I've called Toby Giles (chief deputy for Miller County) from my tractor
two or three times. It's happened in broad daylight. We'll see a car stop
and by the time we get in the pickup, they have gotten what they want and
are gone," Heigle said.

But most of the time the only way they can tell something is wrong is by
what the suspects leave behind.

"Beer cans are real popular," Heigle said.

Giles said all local farmers have been good about communicating with the
Sheriff's Department on the thefts.

"What they have been doing recently is when they get a load of ammonia,
they call us up and tell us. We try and keep an eye on it. They have been
working real well with us," he said.

The rash of thefts began about two years ago just as methamphetamine use
began to be a widespread problem in the Texarkana area.

"We started noticing things. A mask we used when we were around the ammonia
was missing. We started watching real close," Heigle said.

On a recent visit to his tanks, Heigle discovered a small battery and part
of a needle on the ground.

Attempts at securing the tanks have never worked well.

"We've put high dollar caps on them but I guess they took them off. They've
brought cutters, torches, you name it. The last time they held a bucket
under the taps. My brother put tape on them so we would know when they were
here," Heigle said.

On a recent visit there were holes in the tape.

"They have been here," he said.

Once the brothers hid a video camera in the grass across the road from the
tanks.

The tape showed a theft in progress but it was not very clear.

"They whipped up in a van, one jumped out with a bucket and then all we saw
was a cloud of smoke," Heigle said.

The tanks at the Heigle brother's farm will hold about 12,000 gallons of
anhydrous ammonia. They usually keep about half that amount i n the tanks
but now they are keeping even less.

Anhydrous ammonia only costs a few cents a gallon and is not a large
financial loss to farmers. But Heigle worries about the dangers the stolen
ammonia can cause.

"It's 82 percent nitrogen," he said. "It will burn your eyes. It will go in
your lungs and just freeze. It's going to kill somebody one day."