“Brazen.”
That’s how Nelly Nelson describes the overnight theft of a 20-foot tilt trailer from the Nelsons’ Trailer Connection, located on Route 7, Warnerville.
A police investigation into the theft is continuing.
Mr. Nelson said when got to work Thursday State Police were already there to greet him.
“At first I thought it was because a motorist had gone off I-88 [which runs behind the Trailer Connection] and through the DOT fence,” Mr. Nelson said.
But he quickly realized the six-foot-high fence had been cut and then neatly rolled back and fastened—and the trailer, valued at $5,700, was missing.
The thieves’ tire tracks through mud and high grass off I-88 to the fence and then back onto I-88 were easy to pick out Thursday as a DOT crew arrived to assess the damage and begin repairs.
“They must have had a plan,” Janet Nelson said.
“Normally, I have a few trailers backed up near the fence, but they’d been sold...They went around all the other trailer in the lot—past things they could have just picked up and thrown in the back of a truck—and hooked up to the trailer.
“It had to be someone who knew what they wanted.”
Though there’s also a gate into the business from Route 7, Mr. Nelson said locks there can’t be cut, even with something like the bolt cutter likely used to get through the DOT fence.
“We’ve been here six years and never anything like this,” he said.
The Nelsons said a passerby on I-88 spotted the tracks early Thursday and alerted State Police of “suspicious activity.”
The Nelsons are asking people to keep an eye out for someone who suddenly comes home with a 20-foot tilt trailer.
Reselling the trailer will be difficult, Ms. Nelson said, because it must be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles and she’s alerted them to the theft and provided them with the Vehicle Identification Number.
“Brazen, Mr. Nelson said. “That’s all I can say. I can’t believe this.”
The Nelsons are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the trailer thieves.
Anyone with information can contact State Police at 234-9401.