A Global Positioning System device on a tractor taken from a
Hollister farm led Fresno County Sheriff’s Office deputies to a
stash of equipment worth nearly $800,000, authorities reported.
A Global Positioning System device on a tractor taken from a Hollister farm led Fresno County Sheriff’s Office deputies to a stash of equipment worth nearly $800,000, authorities reported.
Police received a report of the stolen John Deere tractor on Sept. 15 from a dirt road along a field at the intersection of Wright Road and Highway 25, said Officer Rosie Betanio, a spokeswoman for the Hollister Police Department. Workers left the tractor there at 6 p.m. the night before, she said.
An employee of a Salinas-based company SMD Logistics, which owns the tractor, followed a signal to Merced County, but could not find the machine, Betanio said. The company later called the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office about the theft.
On Sept. 17, a team of detectives from the Fresno office’s Ag Task Force followed the signal to an isolated residence near Firebaugh in north Fresno County. There, deputies found three John Deere tractors, two John Deere backhoes, a Caterpillar bulldozer and three commercial grade welders in addition to the stolen tractor from Hollister, Fresno County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Bray said.
Bray said it was one of the Ag Task Force’s largest single recoveries of vehicles, and a first for a citizen to track stolen equipment with a GPS in Fresno County.
“This was one of the first cases that we were able to have someone else use that technology,” Bray said of the farm equipment recovery.
A 37-year-old Salinas man was arrested and booked on eight counts of vehicle theft, eight counts of possession of stolen vehicles and one count of possession of stolen property, all felonies, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office reported. The arrest ended a three-week investigation into the vehicle theft, deputies said.
With some tractors costing up to $100,000, the GPS device is a good investment, Bray said.
The other equipment recovered in the investigation was taken mostly from Monterey County, Bray said. One of the backhoes was taken from Merced County, Bray said.
In the Gilroy area, incidents of stolen agriculture equipment have decreased during the past five years, Rural Crimes Deputy Gabe Sandoval said.
“Ranchers and farmers are paying more attention to not leaving things accessible to thieves,” he said.
Instead of leaving equipment in the field overnight, ranchers and farmers are storing equipment closer to their residences. In addition, an owner-applied number program – where ranchers and farmers etch unique 10-digit numbers onto their equipment – acts as a deterrent to thieves and makes returning recovered stolen equipment easier, Sandoval said.
“If it doesn’t have any markings on it, it’s almost impossible to identify,” he said. “Especially if it’s been stolen from another county.”
Kenny Dozier, a manager at Pringle Tractor Co. in Salinas, the nearest authorized John Deere dealer location, said the GPS systems are used primarily for tracking equipment on the farm to prevent overlap and save on fuel costs.
Farm equipment GPS devices range from $1,500 to $30,000, depending on the options, Dozier said.
Dozier said he has heard of farmers tracking down their stolen equipment with a GPS.
Betanio said the keys were left in the John Deere tractor stolen from Hollister. Dozier said taking the keys, disconnecting the battery, pulling the fuses and using a locking device are ways farmers can prevent equipment theft.
