Police: Truck recovered in Madison, Perry county break-ins

THORNVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — Two businesses are trying to recoup after thousands of dollars worth of merchandise was stolen in two different counties. Now, two law enforcement agencies are working together to track down the suspects.

The businesses – Madison Tree and Landscape Co. and Rival Motorsports – said they weren’t surprised, but what’s interesting is that the two are more than an hour away from each other and sell completely different products.

Both thefts happened just a few days apart, with Madison Tree getting hit Wednesday around 3:30 a.m.

“A couple of guys just drove through the gate,” said Madison Tree and Landscape Co. employee Jake Spegal. “They didn’t try to unlock it or anything; they just drove through the gate.”

The suspects left with nearly $11,000 worth of equipment in just minutes.

“All together, they took 12 chainsaws, they took a couple of backpack blowers,” Spegal said. “So they took some stuff to the back of their truck, but they left and then, I’d say, they were there for about 10 minutes.”

One of the suspects returned about 30 minutes later to take more merchandise.

“We think there’s a chance that they probably, at some point, had come in the store before to kind of see how it was set up and stuff because obviously, they had a power grinder to get the saws off and that’s not really something that people just carry around,” Spegal said. “Definitely stinks seeing how much stuff they took because like I said, we’re a smaller business and being a garden center, the winter is usually a little tougher for us in the first place. So something like this definitely doesn’t help out.”

Two days later, and in another county an hour away, police said the same men hit Rival Motorsports. They did the same thing: after unsuccessfully trying to pry the door open, the men rammed the truck through the front door.

“It’s a little bit shocking. It’s angering, also,” said Scottie Lawrence, the owner of Rival Motorsports. “This is the first time that someone’s actually broke into the store. We’ve had items stolen around the outside of the store, trailers or even scrap metal, things like that. But this is the first time someone’s actually broken into the store and taken something.”

The men were in and out in a matter of minutes, leaving with a $3,000 quad.

“It’s unbelievable that somebody would back up their truck into the door like that, damage the truck and do what they did over a $3,000 quad,” said Don Bennett, a Rival Motorsports employee who first discovered the damage. “I mean, it’s just unbelievable what people are doing today.”

Lawrence is offering a $1,000 reward for anyone who can lead to the arrest and conviction of the men responsible. He says putting up the reward was an easy decision.

“Just catching these people and possibly keep them from doing this again to somebody else’s business is well worth $1,000 to me,” he said.

Police said the black Mazda pickup truck used in the robberies was recovered, left not too far from Rival Motorsports.

Both the Perry County Sheriff’s Office and the West Jefferson Police Department are asking anyone with information to come forward. Anyone with any information can reach the Perry County Sheriff’s Office at (740) 342-4123 or the West Jefferson Police Department at (614) 879-7672.

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