QUINCY — When local farmer Larry Schaapman saw haystacks aflame and had bales of wire stolen last summer, he decided to form a Crime Stoppers group in his hometown to help his neighbors catch criminals and prevent future crimes.

The new group is meeting at 1:15 p.m. Thursday at the Washington Tractor Inc. in Quincy to decide on board members and develop a way to pay for crime tips that lead to arrests. Washington Tractor Inc.’s address is 731 F St. SE.

He said the group is open to anyone in Grant County who may want to join the Quincy Crime Stoppers, or open a chapter in their town.

Schaapman said the group is focusing on keeping tipsters anonymous, by using a system that gives informants a secret code when they make the tip and another code to track the tip to see if it leads to an arrest.

If it does, the tipster will be paid through a local bank.

“The key is to keep anonymity the whole time,” he said. “That way the person who makes the tip doesn’t have to fear getting targeted.”

He said the group will work closely with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, so tips they generate can be passed along to other area law enforcement agencies.

The Crime Stopper group already has donors who pledged money that will be used to pay for the tips leading to arrests, he said.

Schaapman said that he hopes for a board of five to seven residents. He would like to develop a matrix for how much money to pay tipsters.