FERTILIZER THEFT UP, SYMPTOM OF GROWING METH PROBLEM

BILLINGS, Mont. -(AP)- Charlie Bumgarner didn't even know at first that
thieves had been just feet from his farmhouse. It wasn't until he spotted
the siphon hoses near his two big fertilizer tanks that he realized he had
been ripped off.

"My father and grandfather had people steal fuel or tools," said Bumgarner,
who grows grain near Great Falls. "This is something we've never had to deal
with before."

Farmers like Bumgarner have become popular targets of criminals who steal
anhydrous ammonia fertilizer to make the drug methamphetamine. They steal it
in such small amounts that thefts often go unnoticed. And police and
agricultural leaders admit they have had little success in curbing the
problem.

But Bill Mercer, the U.S. attorney for Montana, said that could change in
the next six months when officials launch a public awareness campaign to
make farmers, their neighbors and chemical dealers more aware of the problem
and what they can do to help prevent it.

"We've raised a lot of attention about meth. Now, we're at a point where
we'd like to do more specialized training with this narrower focus," he
said.

County sheriffs in north-central Montana, one area hit hard by fertilizer
thefts, say they will take what help they can get to catch the thieves.

"We're pursuing them as best as we can. But you have to take into account, a
lot of these [theft] sites get very little traffic," said Capt. Dan Smrdel
of the Cascade County Sheriff's Office. "Catching someone in the act is an
exception. They can see you coming for miles."

Anhydrous ammonia is close to pure nitrogen and is used on a wide variety of
crops to increase growth.

Meth makers mix it with ingredients such as paint thinner and cold medicine
to make what police call "poor man's cocaine."

The Drug Enforcement Administration has called methamphetamine the
fastest-growing drug threat in the country.

Thieves have become increasingly brazen, sneaking at night onto farms and
storage sites kept by chemical dealerships and helping themselves to samples
from 1,000-gallon tanks like those on Bumgarner's farm.

They only need a little -- often less than a gallon for a vat of meth -- and
just a few minutes to get it. Often they leave no trace behind. Other times,
broken tank valves, spliced fences and dangling hoses provide clues to the
thefts. But by then, the thieves and anhydrous ammonia are long gone.

Getting a handle on how widespread the problem is has proven difficult. In
Montana, for instance, officials say they do not compile statewide
statistics on thefts that are reported, and they believe many are not
reported at all.

But Kathy Mathers, a spokeswoman for The Fertilizer Institute, a Washington-
based trade organization, said the thefts have occurred just about
everywhere there are isolated farms or storage sites.

"It is fairly widespread across rural America," she said. "It's something
we've seen happen anywhere the product is sold at the retail level."

Police and Montana agricultural officials have been trying to alert more
farmers to the problem and ask for their help. An important step they can
take, authorities say, is to add extra security at their tanks and watch out
for their neighbors' tanks.

"Responsibility falls to a lot of different parties," Long said. "Companies
do what they can, and law enforcement, too. But there's only so much each of
us can do."

"The problem is the desire for the drug," Mathers added. "It causes people
to basically forget they have lives. People get so desperate they often do
anything to get it. And, in the case of ammonia, risk their lives to get
it."

Russ Miner, fertilizer manager at United Agri Products in Great Falls, warns
of the danger of the chemical to anyone not trained to handle it.

"It's kind of amazing. These guys that are taking it, if you get it on your
bare skin, it burns you," he said. "You just never hear about anyone ending
up in the hospital."

Chouteau County Sheriff Doug Williams and his deputies, who devote about 15
percent of their time to the thefts and other meth-related crimes, rely
heavily on help from the public.

"I have 4,000 square miles in this county and you cannot be everywhere at
once," he said. "We don't see this trend stopping anytime soon but we're not
going to give up. The results of giving up are not good."