ASHLAND, Maine — Two law enforcement agencies are seeking the public’s help in their investigation into the July theft of logging equipment along the Pinkham Road.
A variety of radios, communications equipment and tools were stolen on or around July 22 or 23 from several pieces of logging equipment owned by an Eagle Lake contractor and parked along the Pinkham Road in T11 R7 WELS, according to a release from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
The theft was reported on July 23 and is under a joint investigation by the Maine State Police and the Maine Forest Service who on Wednesday declined to release the name of the Eagle Lake contractor.
“We have followed and exhausted all leads that came to us and nothing panned out,” Trooper Rob Flynn of the Maine State Police, said Wednesday afternoon. “The investigation is ongoing and we are now relying on what we can learn from members of the public.”
The equipment was stolen from a 1985 Star/Prentice loader, a 1986 Mack Truck-Barko crane and a 1995 Champion road grader which were parked about nine miles down the Pinkham Road.
Taken were two Motorola MURS radios, a Midland MURS radio, two MURS antennae, one Uniden citizens band radio, a dash cover, some small tools and the crane’s running lights with a combined value of more than $1,000.
A door handle on the grader also was damaged and a CB antenna cord was cut in the incident.
“Maine forest rangers have been working with other law enforcement agencies to curb this type of activity,” William J. Greaves, MFS regional ranger with the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, said in the release. “Logging-equipment theft and vandalism affect jobs, the economy and the safety of those working in this important industry.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Steve Wipperman, ranger at the Maine Forest Service regional headquarters in Ashland, at 435-7963, ext. 201, or Flynn at the Maine State Police Barracks in Houlton at 532-5400.
They might want to check with the Maine division of Earth First!
Those scumbags are capable of ANYTHING.
Man, what’s wrong with me. Yesterday I agreed with hozhead, today I’m agreeing with Yowsa. I must need some kind of therapy.
Ive had to put game cameras on my job sites on the weekends, try to put the equipment back out of site, skidder and harvester,delimber. the loaders are hard to hide, winters coming, the fuel bandits will be out soon, not like the old days
Great Jobs on the Cams… I agree on that. When the fuel bandits start. I would find a way to stop them. like leaving tanks low at night, locking tanks.. I know easier said then done..
I wish you good luck… Hope your cams get them!!!
Cams are working good, My tanks have locks and we’ve even made lock boxes that go over the locks on a few of the machines, I hate to leave the tanks low in the winter, those frozen fuel lines are a nightmare , these new filters are so fine it doesan’t take much to freeze them. if we’re lucky enough to be on a side road we put a big twitch of wood across it, I hate to block the woods roads but we gotta do it at times. Hope to be back in the woods tomorrow if the water goes down..
I see that the forest rangers are checking my jobs and others on nights and weekends. Glad that is happening. Hope they catch the jerks who are doing this crap.
You guys put in long, hard hours. I know. I hope they catch them too, because with hunting season coming there will be alot more people out and about in the woods and riding the roads.
Thats Crazy… Steel other people things who work hard for what they have for what reason??? Drug money? It’s too bad there’s people out there ,,that do things like this.. NO Reason for IT!!!
No, not drug money… just boredom. I know of someone who had a set of master keys to some equipment and he would go around looking for them when he had nothing better to do. He is in jail now, thankfully.
People who steal from the livelyhood of others are SCUM pure and simple. For some folks the cost of lost prodution and equipment repair due to vandalism could mean loss of the business especially during these hard times.
I feel bad for the contractor and hope they find the pieces of trash responsible and make them pay.
People need to learn to respect other people’s things. And hopefully Timberyarders cameras don’t catch me taking a leak behind a log-pile this fall!