Milwaukee, WI – The police officers of Walowrth country were able to return stolen contruction vehicles to a Walworth County company by using the built in GPS systems in the equipment.
The thieves originally hit in the middle of the night and managed to avoid almost all of the security cameras during the incident. While the vehicles did not have keys in them, the thieves managed to get around that by simply taking out the ignition systems for the current vehicles and adding in their own customized ones. This gave them easy access to starting the vehicles and driving off.
The vehicles owner, Stricklen-Rechlicz, said she could not make out anyone on the video surveillance, but it did show a semi truck parked nearby, which was used to load the skid steers onto.
GPS Foils The Criminals Plans
Working with the local police, Stricklen-Rechlicz, was able to use the vehicles built in tracking systems to find both of her stolen skid steers. One was found in a home, and the other found in a truck yard. Both property owners deny knowing were the skid steers originally came from, or having any part is the theft of them.
“To have to replace something that expensive and that useful to what we do… yeah it would have been hard,” said Stricklen-Rechlicz.
So far one person has been arrested based on the information gathered during the vehicles recovery operation, but this was a multiple person job.
“If they victimized me and my company, how many others have they victimized?” asked Stricklen-Rechlicz.
If you have any information on either of these 2 thefts please call the Walworth County Police at 262-275-6585. Story originally from Fox 6 Now
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