Yesterday, at 8:32 a.m., a passerby called 911 to report that two men were trying to load a large excavator bucket into a landscaping trailer at a construction site in the 7100 block of 224th St E in Graham.
When deputies arrived, they contacted two suspects on the property. They had winched the 2,000 lb. bucket onto the trailer, which didn’t appear to be built for that kind of weight. The suspects told deputies that they were picking up the bucket for the owner of an auto wrecking company. Deputies called the company and everyone they spoke to denied that they sent the men to pick up the bucket.
One of the deputies remembered the name of the excavating company that had been clearing the site, so he called them. They said nobody had permission to take the $5,000 bucket and that they had left it on top of water meter boxes to protect them from theft.
The two suspects (ages 46 and 57) were arrested and booked into jail for theft in the first degree. One of them had a warrant for attempted theft in the second degree, and the other had a warrant for domestic violence harassment. Deputies also found meth inside their truck.
An employee responded to the scene and used heavy equipment to remove the bucket from the trailer.