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Mabel Hamilton used to talk to her neighbours about the weather. Now, conversations are all about local crime.

Her Innisfail-area home has been robbed twice over the past year, and two trucks stolen. Her dogs were able to thwart another pair of attempted robberies, scaring off the culprits as they tried to break in.

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Hamilton and her husband are ranchers. They’ve been home each time.

“To be that bold — that’s the part that amazes me. We’re in the barn and they’re trying to get into our house,” Hamilton said Monday.

She was one of more than 100 rural Albertans who descended on the legislature to raise their concerns about what Hamilton called “rampant” crime in their communities.

Allan Erickson was another. He and his wife live just outside Spruce View, around 50 km southwest of Red Deer.

Their home was robbed twice within three days this summer.

Like Hamilton, Erickson said the constant topic of conversation in the coffee shop and at work these days is crime — who was broken into, whose vehicle was stolen.