Five construction or work trailers full of equipment, tools or lawn mowers have been stolen from the Center Grove area in the past two weeks.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the thefts and asking business owners and residents to take extra precautions, such as blocking in their trailers when they are parked overnight or putting a lock on the hitch to make it harder for thieves, Johnson County Sheriff Doug Cox said.
Construction workers and residents are the victims in the thefts, which in total account for more than $45,000 in losses.
The most recent trailer theft was discovered on Tuesday morning on Greensview Drive, in a neighborhood off of State Road 135. A man was doing work at a customer’s home, and his trailer filled with $30,000 worth of tools was taken from the resident’s driveway sometime since late Monday night, according to a sheriff’s office report. The trailer was found on the west side of Indianapolis later Tuesday, and the tools were missing, Cox said.
The first theft was reported May 1 by Built to Last Construction. The company was missing a trailer that had been parked off Bluff Road with industrial fans and other equipment worth more than $8,800 inside, the report said.
The same day, Eagle Home Restorations reported that a 14-foot cargo trailer was stolen, and it had been parked near the trailer that was stolen from Built to Last Construction, the report said. The trailer was full of work tools.
A week ago, a resident of the Eagle Trace subdivision reported that his utility trailer had been taken from his driveway overnight, a report said.
And over the weekend, a trailer was taken from the parking lot of a White River Township Fire Department station on Olive Branch Road. The trailer was owned by an Indianapolis resident and had a lawn mower and weedeater on it, the report said.
The thefts are under investigation. Anyone with information can call the sheriff’s office crime tips line at 317-346-4604.
