He added: “So we put some lovely ‘smile you’re on camera’ signs up and unfortunately that didn’t deter them.
“So I devised a plan and spoke with the owners.
“We’d noticed it was the smaller of the stones that were being taken, so we put a tracking device in what we thought would maybe be the next stone to be taken.
“So there was a bit of guesswork involved.”
Smith said he “lifted a couple of the smaller coping stones off, core drilled into the bottom of those and placed in an Apple AirTag, 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.
Last month, Craig Barker, 41, from Wigan, pleaded guilty to theft and handling stolen goods and was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 22 months.
PC Sean Dalby, of the South Rural Task Force, said: “This case highlights 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.”
