A Sublette County rancher who has taken on the role of a one-person posse is doggedly searching for clues in the brazen daylight theft of his 12,000-pound trackhoe snatched from a grassy canal bank off U.S. 189.
However, 81-year-old Earl Wright, who owns Fishtale Cattle Company near Big Piney, isn’t out for vigilante justice. He just wants his $30,000 Caterpillar 305C Midi Excavator, which he has owned for more than a decade, back.
“Whoever did this had a pretty good plan and got home free,” Wright, who previously ran a construction company and owns a lot of heavy equipment, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
A hunter spotted the trackhoe, also known as an excavator, parked near mile marker 128 early Sunday, which is where Wright left it while repairing a culvert for the Green River Irrigation District.
Wright said around 11:45 a.m. that same day, while driving to lunch in Pinedale, he noticed the trackhoe was no longer there.
Wright believes the thief used a universal key, which is available for older models of Caterpillars, to start the trackhoe that was then loaded on a trailer and driven away.
Tire tracks left in the grass on the shoulder of the road indicate that the trailer and the vehicle towing it were headed north, he added.
Oddly, while the trackhoe was stolen, an expensive pumping device worth about $3,000 was left untouched.
“He (the thief) left stuff sitting there,” Wright said.
Wright, who reported the heist to the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office, is hopeful that traffic cameras at nearby intersections may have captured the thief’s license plate number.
“Maybe someone around here has got the trackhoe and is using it,” said Wright, who remains on the lookout for the machinery. “But once it gets out of state, it may be easier to sell.”
Rare Crime
The heist is unusual and doesn’t seem to be tied to other local thefts, said Sublette County Sheriff’s Lt. Travis Bingham, adding that investigators are analyzing the tire tracks. The thief faces felony charges if caught.
Nearly 1,000 pieces of construction equipment are reported stolen each month nationwide, with an annual loss of $300 million to $1 billion, according to industry experts.
However, that number may be even higher because many thefts go unreported, and there is no one central place tracking all thefts.
Stolen equipment is often resold to unsuspecting buyers, relocated out of the state or country, or dismantled for parts.
At least one Wyoming thief has used a piece of heavy equipment as a getaway vehicle for another crime. In 2018, the so-called Backhoe Bandit stole a truck, trailer, and an excavator, according to Cheyenne police. Video shows he then tried to use the excavator to steal an ATM inside the Sinclair gas station at 600 Vandehei Ave.
Elsewhere, surveillance video last week captured thieves pulling their truck into a Puyallup, Wash. business, cutting into a closed-off gate, then driving off with an excavator on a stolen trailer, according to Fox 13 Seattle.
The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia reported the theft of an excavator from a construction site in July, according to WHSV.
Additionally, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon said in June that thieves used a backhoe to crack open two drive-through ATM machines at a U.S. Bank.
Preventing Thefts
There are a few preventative measures experts say trackhoe owners can take to prevent thefts.
Machinery can be made less mobile by installing a fuel shut-off system, wheel locks, battery switches, ignition locks, and other hidden deactivation devices.
Experts also recommend installing tracking devices on heavy equipment.
Big Horn Machinery Rental in Rawlins, which has equipment worth as much as $175,000, relies on the honor system and typically doesn’t put tracking devices on its machinery.
“We have thought about doing that (installing tracking devices)," said employee Bradley Hoover, adding universal keys work on older equipment but not newer machinery, which requires a password. “But as long as nothing happens, we don’t. We trust people and haven’t had a problem.”
Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com.
