Matt Smith said people were "miffed" with stones being taken so he took action

A thief who was stealing a 300-year-old wall piece by piece was caught when a man put a tracking device in one of the stones.

Matt Smith said people living near Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire "were getting a bit miffed" with stones being taken from the historic boundary wall.

To investigate, he put an Apple AirTag - a coin-sized tracking device people attach to keys or wallets in case they lose them - inside one of the stones.

The tracker led police to an address in Wigan and eventually saw a man plead guilty to two counts of theft and one count of handling stolen goods at Wigan Magistrates' Court in October.

Smith said about 30 stones went missing from a half-mile-long stretch of road which connects Holmeswood and Rufford in October 2025.

"We looked at installing some CCTV, but it costs and with the wall being attacked at random places at random times, in a half mile stretch of wall, it was going to be hard to cover that area," the parish councillor said.

He said the parish council "put some lovely 'smile, you're on camera' signs up and unfortunately that didn't deter them".

As a result, he decided to take more direct action.

"I devised a plan and spoke with the owners," he said.

He said he and the owners had "noticed it was the smaller of the stones that were being taken", so decided to put a tracking device in what they believed would be the next stone to go, adding: "There "was a bit of guesswork involved."

He said he drilled into one of the smaller coping stones and placed an Apple AirTag inside before he "patched up the core, ground it up, put a bit of resin in" and placed it back on the wall.

"Lo and behold, four weeks later my phone started to ping with the tracking device on the move to an address in Winstanley in Wigan," he said.

He contacted the police, who went to the address and made an arrest.

The coping stones were later returned and the "extremely grateful" residents rebuilt the wall.

About 30 stones had gone missing from along a half-mile-long stretch of road

Craig Barker, 41, from Wigan, pleaded guilty to theft and handling stolen goods and was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 22 months in October.

Speaking after the case, PC Sean Dalby said it highlighted "the strong relationships we have developed with our communities and demonstrates the effectiveness of working together to tackle rural and heritage crime".

"I would like to thank the local residents for their support throughout the investigation, as well as those who gave their time to rebuild the wall free of charge," he added.

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