A COOLAMON farmer has had 30 of his sheep stolen which has cost him about $5000.Stuart Jennings came to the realisation on Tuesday that he was missing a number of sheep which had been stolen some time in the last six weeks. "I was a bit bewildered when I realised what had happened and I was quite annoyed," he said."It is a very low act because it has been a pretty tough drought and people have been pouring a lot of money into sheep and now people are just taking them away.""You hear a lot of stories about it and it seems this kind of thing would happen in the night, probably in one go I would imagine," he said.Mr Jennings said neighbours near another of his properties at Coolamon had their sheep stolen a few months ago, and has also heard stories about sheep theft in Marrar and Junee.In the Riverina between mid-2009 and July 2010 there have been seven incidents of sheep theft reported to police.A total of 260 head of sheep were stolen from properties at Coolamon, Old Junee, Currawarna and Ganmain.Mr Jennings believes the motivation behind the thefts is that current sheep prices are at an all-time high.Wagga Rural Crime Unit detective Scott Blanchard said there has been a considerable number of sheep stolen since September last year, generally between 30 and 50 sheep each time."Farmers should secure gates and access to stock yards and we advise to have a rural neighbourhood watch system put in place," he said."The increase in sheep prices would definitely increase the chance of sheep being stolen."Det Blanchard encourages farmers to contact the unit by phoning 6922 2561 if any suspicious behaviour or vehicles are seen.