The $100,000 Load
Chattanooga, TN
Police said a load of lumber and plumbing pipe worth $100,000 was stolen from a semi-truck on Highway 58.
James Reedy Jr. said he parked the International semi-truck that he drives for McElroy Truck Lines in the parking lot of BI-LO and returned on Sunday to find it missing. Shattered glass was found in the space where the truck had been.
Police found the truck that was left running on the Rossville Boulevard ramp to I-24 eastbound.
The load on the truck belonged to Lowe’s Home Improvement Distribution.
Several pieces of electronic equipment that were inside the cab were also taken.
The thieves apparently used a tire iron to break into the truck, then used some device to start it. They cut the wires to the vehicle’s tracking system.
The vehicle had been driven 21 miles since the theft.
Found in the Chattanoogan
March 27th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
No doubt the culprits were looking for copper tubing. There has been a rash of copper thefts in our area, because the resale value is high.
Either that, or someone has a lot of porta-potties to build.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
I think I’d be looking at one Mr. Reedy as being involved. Or at the very least, accepting money for parking his truck over the weekend at that particular Bi-Lo versus driving to the delivery site, dropping the trailer and bob-tailing to a motel someplace.
If I were the police, I’d look at him in cahoots with the UPS driver that needed the trailer space to sell TV’s in front of Lowe’s. Oh, wait….that was in front of Best Buy, wasn’t it?
March 28th, 2006 at 5:34 am
I’m going to go with gdfunkrr on this one. This seems to be a very well planned robbery (see “cut the wires to the vehicle’s tracking system” and “left running on the Rossville Boulevard ramp to I-24 eastbound.”)
Definitely not a crime of opportunity, stealing lumber and piping and then driving away in another vehicle.
An inside pipe job?
/Eww.
March 28th, 2006 at 6:12 am
just trying to make a bigger pipe….
March 28th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Nice theory gdfunkrr, but Lowe’s like Home Depot specifies delivery times. If you arrive on friday, but your dock time is monday, you have a weekend to kill. Lowe’s probably doesn’t allow the waiting trailers to be parked on their lot (often, local zoning law prohibits this). Was the trailer was stolen or just the load? Swapping trailers is quick and not nescessarily suspicious on a roadside. Offloading requires a Hi-Lo and a freight yard. I suspect professional highjackers specializing in building materials (this happens ALOT).
As for the “left running on the Rossville Boulevard ramp to I-24 eastbound†thing, this seems more like “failure to give a damn” than planning or anything else.
That being said, I DO think the driver might know more than he’s telling.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:29 am
wow, you’re very smart about those things
March 29th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Maybe a little TOO smart….
March 29th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Let’s just say I’ve led an “eventful” life….