Exploding potato field lands farmer in jail
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There’s a crop for all seasons but few knew it was a good time to plant landmines. Except for one Russian farmer who decided to lace his potato crop with the explosives in case of trespassers. He’s now serving a two and a half year sentence.
The 73-year-old man’s testimony in the Far-East Federal District Court shows that he wanted to protect his potato crop from robbers – using homemade bombs made of explosives and salt rigged as a network of landmines through his fields.
The farmer’s neighbour was the first victim of the landmines when he entered the field and was only mildly injured by the explosion.
The incident not only tipped off the farmer to the trespasser but also notified the police to his minefield security system.
The court noted that while the neighbour should not have trespassed onto the farmer’s property, it is against the law to guard one’s fields with landmines.
The neighbour maintains that he was not trespassing but simply walking between the two fields when the salt-dynamite mixture exploded.
So while the farmer’s homemade security system has managed to protect his crops it hasn’t managed to protect him from jail.
