JANESVILLE, Wis. — Law enforcement agencies across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois are looking for a suspect they believe is responsible for a series of burglaries at farm equipment dealerships over the past few weeks, according to a story on WREX.com.
On Christmas morning, suspects stole seven chainsaws from Johnson Tractor of Janesville, Wis., valued at between $400 and $1,200 a piece. Johnson Tractors was Farm Equipment's 2012 Dealership of the Year.
"We have a couple of stores in Illinois and some of the neighboring dealers had been broken into and had Stihl products stolen," said Eric Reuterskiold, operations manager at Johnson Tractor.
The Rock County Sheriff's Office confirmed they are looking at two similar thefts at farm implement stores in Green County and another in Platteville.
"Our staff is all kind of on extra precaution right now," says Chris Frodel, owner of Mid-State Equipment, which has one location less than a mile away from Johnson Tractor. (Mid-State Equipment was Rural Lifestyle Dealer's 2012 Dealership of the Year and Frodel was formerly on the magazine's editorial advisory board.)
Frodel says it appears the person featured in the Johnson Tractor surveillance tape has been in her store before.
"Our staff at that location thought they recognized the individual, of course couldn't put a name with it, especially if they had just been in looking at stuff," says Frodel.
