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County Road Grader Stolen; Road Heavily Damaged
November 7, 2010
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after someone took a county road grader on a short ride and heavily damaged a road Saturday night.
The grader, which was parked at Arthur Brown Road and Pineville Road, was stolen sometime before 9 p.m. Saturday. The thief was apparently unable to properly operate the piece of heavy equipment. The blade was dropped onto Arthur Brown Road, digging up full lane’s width of asphalt. The grader was then taken a short distance north on Pineville Road where it became stuck when the driver ran the wheels up onto a small embankment, burying the blade in the dirt road.
Deputies said the thief could face felony charges in connection with the incident.
The Escambia County Road Department was called to the scene to remove the stuck grader and make temporary repairs to the road.
The intersection of Arthur Brown Road and Pineville Road is an extremely rural area, about seven miles west of Walnut Hill.
Pictured top and below: A stolen Escambia County road grader became stuck on Pineville Road Saturday night. Picture inset: A section of Arthur Brown Road was destroyed by the blade on the road grader. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
33 Responses to “County Road Grader Stolen; Road Heavily Damaged”
This was not the fault of the law enforcement or the county. The blame lies strictly with the one(s) who tampered with the county’s property.
I think “your past” might just have “your number”. It’s amazing what some people can get away with and then still have the nerve to blast law enforcement.
‘Oversight”
it would cost more in the long run that this one in a blue moon theft. The camp where these graders would have to be parked is near Byrneville, the graders run on diesel no unleaded and they don’t exactly get GOOD mileage and it would take for ever so there would be a lot less time to actually grade the road. And if they built another lot that would mean having to hire a guard and then in turn not being able to hire a new person to grade the roads when they have people retire. So in the long run it would cost millions of dollars instead of the money its going to take to fix the grader even though it didnt even say it was damaged it takes alot to hurt them. My dad worked for the county for 15 years and he was a road grader so i actually know what i’m talking about.
..(continued) .. as for “earning their salary”… Come on… These men & women potentially put their life on the line every time they answer a call… What dollar figure do you put on that? People need to start paying attention to what is going on in their communities, watch their surroundings and report things that look out of the ordinary.
As for the grader incident, this sounds like young folks maliciously wanting to drive around the grader just cause it was there… Kindof like climbing firetowers, eating a watermelon out of someone’s field etc.. Is It ok? No? Is it the deputies fault – No Way! No matter how many deputies ya have… They can’t be everywhere. I feel the ESCO deserves lot more respect than they are getting. Their presence is so much better than in years past!
Last year, I had a farm tractor stolen in broad daylight on highway 29 south of Century. At that time, I was told by the ESCO investigator there had been a fair amount of heavy equipment stolen lately. They believed there was a ring of thieves involved and had reason to believe equipment was being taken out of state.
It is amazing to me looking at how some people on the blog turn this story about the grader being “vandalized” into a ” beatup on the deputies forum”. Do you realize how many square miles the deputies cover… travel highway 4 a little and you will see that they are not sitting in Century. They are back n forth covering the large area of the northend of escambia Cty. These deputies work hard at doing their job and
dont drink and drive
As far as ECSO Finest…..
Some are Some aren’t….and as far as telling someone to go down and take
the job themselves, thats just a lot of hoo haw…..is that the best you got????
If you take the job, you should be prompt, helpful, courteous and do
your job.
NOT ALL OF THEM DO…..
My heart goes out to the officer and his family who is fighting for his life at
sacred heart right now, but that does not alleviate the police who refuse to
work OR be nice. jUST LIKE ALL EMPLOYEES …THEIR NOT ALL THE SAME.
JUST LIKE ALL BROTHERS …THEIR NOT ALL THE SAME EITHER…..
I have never been rude to any officer and neither has my husband, but I can’t say the same for some of THEM TO US!
About 5 years ago there was a young man steal a mans dozier from a job site. He knew who owned the dozier, and as a matter of fact had grown up right down the road from the man. Anyway, he stole the dozier, hid it in the woods or somewhere for a couple months and then began using it in his own business of land clearing and road building. For over a year he used the dozier, ate lunch at the local cafe with the man and acted like everything was completely okay. One day by chance another local man pulled up on a job site of the THEIF to talk to him about doing some work for him and noticed that the dozier he was on looked exactly like the one that had been stolen and everyone had been looking for. The gentleman went on like nothing was wrong but called the authorities and the man who had his dozier stolen. Within a few minutes all were there and questioned him about the dozier, checked the VIN number and guess what it was the stolen dozier. The THEIF was arrested and spent 3 1/2 years in the state pen for grand theft. It was one of those situations of hiding in plain sight.
Also, several years ago we had a road packer stolen from a job site in the middle of the day. We filed a police report and for 6 months or better no luck. Well I am like a blood hound and I went by every job site I saw and business that used heavy equipment. Well I found it at a well respected business and confronted the business owners son which literally threatened me with physical harm. Well I called the local PD who we had filed the theft report and then my dad. Of course, I had taken pictures of the packer before I left…. Well at 5:30 the next morning the owner of the business called my dad and APOLOGIZED for his son’s behavior towards me, for stealing his packer and offered to buy him a new one. Dad told him he didn’t want a new one he wanted his. The man was very humble and told daddy he would bring it home right away and he did along with a check for the loss of income (just a polite gesture on his part) Dad refused and refused the check but the gentleman told him that HIS SORRY SON HAD COST MY DAD MONEY AND IT WAS THE LEAST HE COULD DO.
There are sorry people in this world but there are also good people in this world. The thing of it is whoever did this has probably been around heavy equipment in his time and A GREAT EMBARASSMENT TO HIS FAMILY.
I agree with LULU,
This is not the fault of the county or the police or the ppl that lived next door
to where it was parked.
This falls straight to the TEENS WHO DID THIS AND THEIR PARENTS.
Mary this doesn’t have anything to do with if there is anything to do up here
or not….HAND THEM BOOKS TO READ……
This has to do with bad parenting……when did them teach them….
IF IT’S NOT YOURS DON’T TOUCH IT!!!!!!!!
When did they teach them NOT to lie, cheat, steal, or do drugs???????????
If these kids had been taught right from wrong it wouldn’t matter where
anyone left anything. We could all start leaving our doors unlocked again.
We would all be safe in our beds at night again.
THEIR GOOD HUNTERS I BET….YOU KNOW WHY…BECAUSE THEIR TAUGHT FROM THE TIME THEIR 5 YEARS OLD….TO BAD YOU DIDN’T TEACH THEM ANYTHING ELSE DAD….
These kids crossed the line and I hope they get them and lock them up
till WE SOCIETY TEACH THEM SOMETHING…….maybe if there is one
shred of goodness in them, they will learn their lesson and never want
to go to jail again.
YOU KNOW this is not just a 5 year old going over to the neighbors and borrowing a toy they want to play with.
UMMMM what did this piece of equipment cost us tax payers…..arrrrrrrrgh!
AGAIN SOMEBODY DIDN’T DO THEIR JOB AND THESE KIDS WHEN CAUGHT
WILL PAY…..THERE SHOULD BE A TEST OR SOMETHING BEFORE YOU CAN
HAVE KIDS!!!!!
From Chemstrand Road to state line at Atmore to Cotton Lake Road there are only two officers on duty most of the time. So to throw this back at ESO deputies is wrong. My source is from the deputies I have met at Fran’s Dinner.
You want to know how they got it started? Very simple; it does not take a key to start over 85% of heavy equipment. I will not tell you how to start it on here because then somebody will try it just to see if I’m right. Why do people do these things? Because they can. Heavy equipment can be locked with a simple piece of equipment, under $20. My question is why don’t they lock them up????
I have ofter wondered when this will happen to the tractor and bush hog that is county owned parked at end of road I live on some times .It is dark no homes with in eye sight.
“DixieRay”
I don’t know how much it would cost, but it have to be cheaper than having to replace a half million dollar piece of equipment at our (taxpayer) expense.
Whatever happened to climbing up the water tower and spray painting your girlfriends name on it?
Odd —all I have run into were officers who were helpful if it was legal to help. Some time officers can’t do any thing because they legally can not. I guess if they are coming from a call where a parent had beat a child or had to deliver a death message they aren’t to nice. It’s like the comments about why the cops don’t keep some people in jail—it’s the judges/courts who decide who gets out on bond after the person goes to court. Sorry you’ve had bad experiences.
Ms. Parker — What is the golden rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you… If you got verbal abuse and disrespect, it is probably because you started off with it. Rookie school is held several times a year, feel free to apply and begin the process…
For your information “Molino Jim”, I had one stand in my presence and blackmail a girl into pressing charges against her mother under the threat of being arrested herself if she didn’t do it when all everybody wanted to go home. My daughter had a restraining order against her druggie husband that she ordered to leave when she found out. He broke the restraining order and she called them. Took them so long to get here, he was gone. They met him up the road, talked to him. He gave them such a sob story that when they came back to talk to her, they cursed at her and wanted to know why she was being so mean to him. She ran them off her property. She had a witness to their abuse. 32 yr. old woman attacked my 16 yr. old gr Daughter. Because she called them first, they didn’t even come and talk to that child. Called and talked to her on the phone. The woman never went to jail. One of my problems with them is that they believe the first lie they’re told. They choose their profession.
This is to Molino Jim. All we’ve ever gotten out of them is verbal abuse and disrespect. How would you expect me to feel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ms. Parker–Three of “Escambia’s Finest” earned their pay this last week. The county SO has had to cut back like most of us. Just remember—when we call they come. The three last week had to face a crazy with a gun—would you do that for the “big pay” they get?
@ oversight…it’s not the road department’s fault that the equipment was stolen. It’s the fault of the thieves. People should respect the property of others,peroid.
Thankful no one was hurt!
Don’t blame it on the deputies. Blame it on the sheriff. If you don’t know, where this was stolen was in the middle NOWHERE. It’s a long way from Century. The deputies have to spend all of there time on the druggies in Century. They can’t patrol the backwoods of the north end. The sheriff needs more officers up here.
geeezzzz. So now I would think that they will have to fix the road, which will come out of all tax payers, So maybe the road crew should be thinking about a way that this won’t happen again. Sick and tired of money coming out of my pocket to clean up after idiots like this one. Hope they find who did this and make them pay for the road they destroyed.
Keys to heavy equipment are different from car keys. In most cases you only need a couple of keys from a heavy equipment company to start every piece of equipment that company makes, and anyone can buy those keys. A lot of people already have these keys that work for any company that uses such equipment, or even a farmer that might have equipment from the same company.
Years ago this would be chalked up to kids being kids, nowadays this will result in charges being brought up. You wont get away with it forever , karma has a way of getting its payback. Be good even when people arent looking !
Where does it say the keys were left in it? @Oversight-how much would it cost to transport heavy equipment back and forth “to park it where there is a capable guardian”????? That would cost alot more than parking it, and this misadventure. If we had the proper coverage by the sheriff’s department in rural areas, we would have to worry about securing everything!
I live off Pineville Rd. The county has a hard enough time keeping our road passable what with people cutting donuts in it with 4-wheelers and their vehicles. True we don’t think it’s graded enough,but people need to leave their (our) equipment alone. This grader was parked within sight of an occupied home, so you would think it would be safe. As far as “Escambia County’s Finest”. Let them earn that salary they get.
Lesson learned here for the road department as this is self inflicted: safe your equipment so that it can’t be taken or park it somewhere that it is covered by a capable guardian. After driving around up this way, I’m surprised that more of the county’s road equipment is stolen because it is left all over the place in the middle of nowhere for extended periods of time.
And just HOW did the dummy get it started? If he hot wired it,he is not as dumb as previously thought.And why do I keep referring the perpetrator to be a him? Shucks it might have been a good old country gal going to pick up her date!
It takes a real dummy to get a road grader stuck!!!
Had this happen to a pece of large equipment that I owned several years ago. The three teens involved joined the army to avoid prosecution. Three years later they got out and to this day they are still worthless troublemakers.
I guess this replaces “papering” or smashing mail boxes.
My questions is……..were the keys left in it?
why were the keys to left..is that how he got it…HMM??? If there was something to do out here @ nite..maybe just maybe these hoodlums would have something to do. As always Hope Escambia County’s Finest get some fingerprints & catch this 1!