Brazen thieves drive away with trucks, skid loader

Brazen thieves struck two area businesses last week, driving off with a truck and equipment valued at $200,000 owned by one company and a tow truck belonging to another, in what are believed to be unrelated thefts.

In the first incident at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, a man drove off with a tow truck that was idling in the lot of M&R Service Center on Highway LL in Cedar Grove.

The second incident occurred two days later at about 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2, when thieves cut their way through the chain-link fence at the back of the storage yard at Nate’s Landscaping in Belgium and drove off with a skid loader, trailer and  pick-up truck.

Owner Nate Kohn said security camera footage showed at least two men moving about his yard for about two hours after they were dropped off by another vehicle.

“There were at least three people,” counting the driver of the car, Kohn said.

The theft was discovered on Monday morning when employees arrived for work, he said.

“The first guy came in Monday and saw the chains had been cut on our gate,” he said.

Kohn valued the three pieces of equipment — a 2023 Caterpillar 299D skid loader, a 2023 D&K gooseneck style trailer and a 2022 Ford F350 flatbed truck — at about $200,000.

On Monday night, the pick-up truck was found in Naperville, Ill., Kohn said. The trailer and skid loader still have not been recovered.

“The Sheriff’s Office is actively working on investigative leads in attempts to locate and recover the stolen property.  It is believed that several of the stolen items have been moved out of state,” Ozaukee County Undersheriff Marshall Herman said. 

In one wrinkle to the case, Kohn said he got a phone call from someone claiming to know where the skid loader is and who stole it. He told Kohn that he would share that information if Kohn would pay him $250.

It turned out to be a scam.

“The guy had tried to do the same thing in Texas and his phone number was out there to be on the look out for,” Kohn said. “He probably saw (news of the theft) on social media.”

In the Cedar Grove case, M&R owner Troy Kritz said he came out to start the flatbed tow truck to let it warm up before responding to a call.

“I went inside to do some paperwork and when I came out, it was gone,” he said.  “The guy who took it must have been right there and saw me start it up,” Kritz said, who added that he later learned a man had been seen walking north on Highway LL.

It was found abandoned on Thursday in the Upper Peninsula near Marenisco, Mich. The suspect was apprehended on Friday and is currently in custody in the Bayfield (Wis.) County Jail after going on a car theft spree  in the area.

He has not been charged and his name has not been released.

Marenisco Police Chief Jim Weber said the incident is still under investigation.

“A passerby notified us that the vehicle appeared abandoned and we found that it had been stolen,” Weber said. It was out of gas.”

It also had hit a deer and suffered damaged to its front hood, bumper and headlight, Kritz said.

After abandoning the truck, the thief stole a four-wheel utility vehicle, drove it 20 miles to Ironwood, Mich., stole another tow truck and, after it got stuck, stole another vehicle, which he crashed in the Town of Iron River, Wis., in Bayfield County, where he was arrested, Kritz said he was told by police.

A Bayfield County Sheriff’s lieutenant confirmed the man had been arrested in Iron River and was being held in the jail there but would not comment further since he had not been charged.

Being one of two trucks he owns, Kritz said losing it for those few days severely cramped his business.