Precious pigeon racing birds worth hundreds of thousands stolen by drone, laser

RANST, Belgium – Belgium’s once-pastoral pastime of pigeon racing has come to this: drones fly over lofts housing valuable birds to search for security vulnerabilities, laser sensors set off alarms at night and cameras linked directly to mobile apps catch thieves possible away. – 24/7.

That’s what happens when fast-flying birds – which in a bygone era were, at best, the toast of local pubs – have become valuable commodities. The most expensive bird to come out of the best pigeon racing nation in the world reached 1.6 million euros ($1.65 million) a few years ago.

No wonder the sport is facing an unprecedented wave of unsolved pigeon poaching that has hit some of the best birds in the business.

This winter season is “extreme,” Pascal Bodengien, head of the Belgian Pigeon Racing Federation, told The Associated Press. “Not a week goes by without a burglary somewhere.”

Pigeons worth about 100,000 euros ($102,900) were stolen from an attic last week. Overall, no arrests have been made. Prices per bird, Bodengien said, “can vary from 1,000 to 100,000 euros … and that’s what they’re asking for.”

Accurate statistics on losses are often not available because reporting and police investigations are not centralized.

The emotional loss often weighs the heaviest of all. The sport involves daily care, over decades, and the rustling of feathers combined with the quiet humming often gives breeders a haven of peace in their lively lives, along with some pride if their birds are winners.

Frans Bungeneers is a breeder of champions. He started at age 8 and is still going strong in his 60s. His life received one of its biggest shocks in November 2016 when thieves broke into his garden shed and took almost all of his larger pigeons in a heist of around 60 in total.

“It was such an unbelievable shot for me. I can honestly tell you, I cried like a little boy because my life’s work was completely destroyed,” Bungeneers said outside his loft where he had to start breeding and racing almost from scratch. “I was — I was broken, ” he said. “If you have those successes and those birds will be removed. You know it takes years.”

He never returned his birds, although the thieves were caught in Romania and convicted in Belgium. He never saw the 400,000 euros ($410,000) in damages he was awarded because the criminals were declared bankrupt. It makes this winter’s string of high-profile thefts all the more poignant as he knows what it means to each of the owners.

For pigeons taken in a robbery, their racing career is over. Without proper documentation, one cannot get away with winning a major race and not being double and triple checked. That door is closed to thieves. The birds cannot be auctioned, with prices for prime birds regularly moving into five figures and sometimes into six figures.

“The only option open to them is breeding. They can’t take it anywhere, they can’t go to China, so we suspect they will go to Eastern Bloc countries,” as was the case with the Bungeneers’ birds, Bodengien said. Still, with no clear lead out there other than some infrared video and other sketchy information, “no one really has a big picture on it.”

Bungeneers, who was a police officer until his retirement last year, deplores the lack of general, joint investigations and the fact that often expensive pigeons are seen in the same light as escaped birds and receive the same level of investigation. He said it was like comparing a farm pony to a champion thoroughbred.

“I remember a colleague of mine who entered the prosecutor’s office and the magistrate said: “Gentlemen, what are we going to do? Start the prosecution of the theft of chickens, rabbits and pigeons?'”

So now the pigeon racing federation is warning its members to be extra cautious – to the point of not talking to strangers about their hobby.

“If you see something going on around the house or around the kennels, or you see cars that don’t really belong there, immediately note the license plates, take pictures and maybe call the police,” Bodengien said. “It’s really a call that we have to do something about it.”

But for Bungeneers it’s also a sign that a way of life is being lost. Instead of the happiness of watching their birds fly up, owners have to carefully look over their shoulder to see if someone is near the loft.

“Cameras, sensors, alarms. All the time, when you go somewhere, you have to look at your app to check the cameras,” he said. “If there’s an alarm, or sometimes the alarm detection goes off and you go check the bins. And that gives you turmoil.”

“You have to invest thousands of euros in your hobby to keep potential thieves away,” he added. “For many people, that’s too much and they drop out.”